India, South Africa and the other co-sponsors of the proposal for temporary waiver of TRIPS provisions for checking the spread of Covid-19 have narrowed the scope of the waiver to ‘health products and technologies’ but not restricted it to just vaccines as was being suggested by some countries, including the US.
The revised waiver proposal circulated at the WTO on Friday suggests a duration of minimum three years for its applicability leaving the responsibility of terminating it on the WTO General Council.
“The best thing about the revision is that the co-sponsors have not given in to pressure from countries (such as the US and some European nations) to restrict the waiver to just vaccines. The co-sponsors have left the scope of the waiver open to all medical products and technologies which is what is needed,” KM Gopakumar, Senior Researcher, Third World Network (TWN), told BusinessLine.
The revision addresses the concern of specificity by focussing on ‘health products and technologies’ as the prevention, treatment or containment of COVID-19 involves a range of products and technologies and intellectual property issues may arise with respect to the products and technologies, their materials or components, as well as their methods and means of manufacture, per the co-sponsors.
TRIPS pact
“Sections under Part III of the TRIPS Agreement, shall be waived in relation to health products and technologies including diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, medical devices, personal protective equipment, their materials or components, and their methods and means of manufacture for the prevention, treatment or containment of Covid-19,” the revised decision text said.
The waiver shall not apply to the protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms (Sound Recordings) and Broadcasting Organisations under Article 14 of the TRIPS Agreement, it added.
“The exclusion was necessary to give a message to other members that developing countries were only interested in a waiver for vaccines, medicines and medical products for treatment of Covid-19 and not for broadcasting material related to the pandemic,” Gopakumar said.
The IP waiver proposal was first submitted by South Africa and India on October 2 and since then co-sponsored by about 60 members including the African Group and the LDC Group and is aimed at “prevention, containment or treatment” of Covid-19. A waiver would allow patented medical products and vaccines to be manufactured and supplied by generic producers without the need for licences from the patent holder.
The revised text fixed the minimum period the waiver at three years from the date of the decision. “The General Council shall, thereafter, review the existence of the exceptional circumstances justifying the waiver, and if such circumstances cease to exist, the General Council shall determine the date of termination of the waiver,” it said.
Also read: Katherine Tai, Piyush Goyal discuss vaccine output, TRIPS waiver
“There was a disagreement between members over the waiver period with some countries insisting on five years. Therefore, it was decided to keep it at a minimum of three years with an open-ended time for terminating it,” an official tracking the matter said.
IP waiver on vaccines
On May 5, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai had said that her country was ready to support negotiations for an IP waiver on vaccines. Following this announcement, the EU said that it was open to discussions on the issue of waiver for vaccines but did not commit whether it was ready for text-based negotiations.
The Covid-19 pandemic is the worst that the world has experienced in a long time with an estimated 16 crore people across the world infected by it and over 34 lakh dead.
