Patent-waivers or pandemic: The EU must not block patent-wai

Patent-waivers or pandemic: The EU must not block patent-waivers for Covid vaccines
The Financial Express
© Provided by The Financial Express
This undermines the exercise to keep vaccines affordable for low-income nations.
The EU-chiefly vaccine-major Germany-hardening its stance over temporary patent waivers for Covid-19 vaccines at the WTO is antithetical to all the talk of its leaders on global cooperation to beat the pandemic. While, last month, there were reports of widespread support at the G7 meeting for text-based negotiations on the India-South Africa proposal for TRIPS waiver, now, the EU wants its proposal to be considered on an equal footing. The EU sees a better alternative in limiting export restrictions and compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement, among other things. It calls on vaccine-producing nations to be ready to export a fair-share of their domestic production (the EU currently exports half). Bear in mind, this comes against the backdrop of the US's restriction on key vaccine ingredients that got lifted only last month. The other element, of compulsory licensing, can be invoked in case of national emergencies and other situations of extreme emergency-only when the TRIPS-asks on voluntary licensing don't apply. Though the EU has exhorted nations to "encourage producers to expand production"-entering into voluntary licensing agreements could be one way to do this-it has also said that WTO member-governments must agree that the pandemic is an exceptional circumstance of national emergency for every nation and go forward with compulsory licensing. Any any such licence, of course, must cover exports to countries that lack manufacturing capacity, including via the WHO's Covax facility. That may see a rational way forward, but the fact is that, per Article 31h of the TRIPS Agreement, the patent-holder will have to be adequately remunerated, "taking into account the economic value of the authorization". This undermines the exercise to keep vaccines affordable for low-income nations.

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