The four largest manufacturers of the Covid vaccine have reached a compromise on the abolition of intellectual property rights, congratulated the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Wednesday, calling for an agreement on the issue of all member states.
In a statement, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the “decisive progress achieved by undermining agreements on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights for the production of vaccines against covid-19” by the European Union (EU), the United States, India and South Africa.
“This is a great step forward,” the director of the World Trade Organization (WTO) pointed out that all the details of the settlement have not yet been finalized.
A few hours ago, Adam Hodge, a spokesperson for the US trade representative, announced “a compromise that opens the way to concrete and meaningful results,” making it clear that consultations on the text are still ongoing.
The US Chamber of Commerce has already expressed its refusal to abolish intellectual property rights.
According to the environment of Franck Riester, the Minister of Foreign Trade of France, this technical agreement should now be confirmed at the political level.
According to the same source, the promises in the table will only apply to developing countries and, in fact, countries that account for less than 10% of the annual global export of the Covid vaccine, excluding China.
This commitment is not intended to dismantle the current intellectual property system, but to promote the granting of “compulsory licenses” in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the same goes for future health crises.
Under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement, there is a compulsory license to allow the government to use patents without the approval of the holder and to indemnify the group that initiated the patent.
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Okonjo-Iweala supports the process, stating that the negotiated compromise between the EU, the United States, India and South Africa constituted an “essential element of the final agreement.”
The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) called for the expansion of negotiations on the text to all member states of the organization.
“In the World Trade Organization (WTO), we decided by agreement, but there are still ways to achieve it.” He said.
However, Switzerland, which has a large pharmaceutical laboratory, has expressed its reluctance to the principle of undermining intellectual property rights on several occasions.
Several developing countries supported by NGOs and some international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), consider the lifting of intellectual property rights essential to promote knowledge sharing and rapid proliferation of vaccine production sites.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (IFPMA) opposes any project to abolish intellectual property rights and believes that there are enough vaccines produced in the world (currently 12 billion doses per year), and vaccination should be the first to accelerate.
In 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, India and South Africa began discussions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding intellectual property rights and access to vaccines from poor countries.
Since there was no progress, these two countries joined by the United States and the EU launched a limited group in December to negotiate a compromise.
In a statement, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) noted that this appointment includes “significant restrictions.” “It is geographically limited, only deals with patents, and does not address other barriers to intellectual property rights, such as industrial secrets.”
MSF Dimitri Eynikel said, “The text (...) I am very worried that it does not deal with more than a vaccine, but does not deal with treatment or diagnosis at the moment,” he said.
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