BackInequitable vaccine drive could hurt the global economy: Goyal
This requires temporary removal of all impediments, including IP rights protection, the minister said
PremiumAn inequitable global covid vaccination programme could prolong the pandemic for many years through cycles of mutation and may cost the global economy trillions of dollars in lost output and fiscal/monetary stimulus, Union trade minister Piyush Goyal has warned.
World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries need to create an environment for quickly scaling up global production, not only of vaccines but also medical products such as therapeutics and diagnostics, he said on Wednesday at a virtual conference titled “Covid-19 and vaccine equity: what can WTO contribute?"
“This requires temporary removal of all impediments to the production of covid medical products, including where necessary, intellectual property (IP) protection," he said at the WTO-organized meet.
India and South Africa, along with 57 other members, had co-sponsored, at the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council of WTO on 2 October, a proposal for temporary and limited-scope waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement relevant to the prevention, treatment and containment of covid.
They held this would ensure that IP rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information do not create barriers to timely access to affordable vaccines and medicines or to scaling up research, development, manufacture and supply of medical products essential to fight covid.
The proposal has been discussed orally many times at the TRIPS Council but a consensus for a text-based negotiation has not been reached yet. Developed countries including the US, the EU, Canada, Japan, the UK, Australia and Switzerland have opposed the proposal.
The TRIPS waiver is not intended to take away protection given to pharma firms and focuses only on covid vaccines, associated medicines and cure, Goyal said. “Clearly, the world is not producing sufficient vaccines because of limited licensing agreements. To bridge the supply deficit, every tool at our disposal should be used towards producing enough vaccines. We need to engage all potential manufacturers on terms that are transparent and non-exclusive to address supply side constraints and scarcity," he said.
US trade representative Katherine Tai admitted that there is still a gaping divide between developed and developing countries when it comes to access to medicines, but remained non-committal to the TRIPS waiver. “We saw this during the HIV/Aids epidemic, where various policies and actions constrained access to medicines. We must not repeat the mistakes," she said.
There are many examples of cooperation and voluntary licensing of IP rights at global level that should be encouraged, EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said.
“Should voluntary solutions fail, the TRIPS Agreement already provides a framework for sharing technology through the granting of compulsory licences," he said.
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