E-Paper
World divided on India’s proposal to WTO on Covid-19 IP rights. What are the arguments?
Last month, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal expressed hope that the global pharmaceutical industry will show "big heart" and support India’s proposal.
The debate around intellectual property rights on vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has gained momentum, especially after four Republican senators urged US President Joe Biden to not accept a proposal by India and South Africa to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The two countries had submitted a proposal to WTO in October 2020, suggesting a waiver for all its members on the implementation, application and enforcement of certain provisions of a 1995 intellectual property (IP) rights agreement in order to boost Covid-19 prevention, containment or treatment.
The multilateral agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provides for copyright, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets. A temporary TRIPS waiver for certain provisions is supposed to enable greater access to Covid-19 vaccines, particularly in middle- and low-income countries.
What are the arguments in favour?
Last month, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal expressed hope that the global pharmaceutical industry will show "big heart" and support India’s proposal. Speaking at a FICCI webinar on pharmaceuticals, Goyal said that the waiver could help the world come out of the Covid-19 pandemic much faster and bring back the V-shaped recovery globally.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has also backed the proposal which has now been co-sponsored by dozens of countries. "If a temporary waiver to patents cannot be issued now, during these unprecedented times, when will be the right time?" the WHO director-general tweeted.
Stephen Cornish, general director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Switzerland, told news agency Reuters that a temporary waiver would enable to scale up the production of Covid-19 vaccines in a number of countries. Cornish said that rich countries are blocking the proposal in the name of business and status quo instead of “putting human lives above profit.”
Read | Waive Covid vaccine patents to benefit poor nations, activists say
What are the arguments against a waiver?
Rich western nations like the US, Canada, and Switzerland, have opposed the waiver proposal that would grant compulsory licensing by overriding Trips patent rules. Patrick Kilbride, senior vice president at the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), said in a statement that proposals to waive IP rights are “misguided and a distraction from the real work”, which, according to him, is reinforcing supply chains and assisting countries to procure, distribute and administer vaccines.
“Diminishing intellectual property rights would make it more difficult to quickly develop and distribute vaccines or treatments in the future pandemics the world will face,” he added.
Four US Senate Republicans urged Biden to protect American intellectual property, calling the waiver proposal a scheme that would “crush American jobs, end our progress in developing Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, and worsen the pandemic.” In a letter to the US president, Senators Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, Mike Lee, and Todd Young said that destroying intellectual property would end the progress that led to the “fastest development of life-saving vaccines in history.”
“Even if the waiver may—temporarily—result in a few copycats attempting to produce what American companies developed, it would introduce major quality control problems,” they claimed.
“Before long, people would lose faith in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Even worse, a post-development elimination of innovation rights would greatly reduce our ability to respond to future pandemics,” the senators further added.
On Monday, the WTO General Council received a status report from the Trips council on the IP waiver request made by India and South Africa. The request will be on the agenda of the next formal two-days TRIPS Council meeting scheduled for March 10-11.
(With inputs from agencies)
