GENEVA — Dozens of countries have revised a proposal at
the World Trade Organization (WTO) for patent waivers for medical tools needed
to combat COVID, insisting it must be broader than just vaccines, NGOs said
Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
More than 60 countries have presented a revision of their text before the
WTO on ditching intellectual property protections for
COVID-19 jabs and other
medical tools while the pandemic rages, according to the Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) charity and NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).
KEI published what it said was the revised text, which pushed for the waiver
to be broad and long-lasting.
The WTO did not immediately verify the authenticity of the document, but a
Western diplomat close to the waiver discussions confirmed it was genuine and
had been distributed to all WTO members.
That text said the waiver should cover all medical "prevention,
treatment, and containment" tools needed to battle COVID.
In addition to vaccines, it should include treatments, diagnostics,
vaccines, medical devices, and protective equipment, along with the material
and components needed to produce them, it said.
It also said the waiver should last for "at least three years"
from the date it takes effect, following which, the WTO's General Council
should determine whether it could be lifted or should be prolonged.
'Frightening
increase'
"We are pleased to see the governments sponsoring the COVID-19 intellectual
property waiver proposal reaffirm that the waiver aims to remove monopoly
barriers for all medical tools ... needed to tackle this pandemic," MSF
South Asia chief Leena Manghaney said in a statement.
"With a frightening increase in infections and deaths in developing
countries, and with potentially promising treatments in the pipeline, it is
crucial that governments have every flexibility at their disposal to beat back
this pandemic," she said.
The WTO has since October faced calls led by India and South Africa for the
temporary removal of such IP protections, in what proponents argue will boost
production in developing countries and address the dramatic inequity in access.
That notion has long met with fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants
and their host countries, which insisted patents were not the main roadblocks
to scaling up production and warned the move could hamper innovation.
The positions appeared to shift earlier this month, when Washington came out
in support of a global patent waiver for the jabs, with other long-time
opponents voicing openness to discuss the matter.
The European Parliament voted narrowly this week to urge Brussels to get
behind the proposal.
Observers have however said the ambitions for the waiver appear to differ significantly
among the longtime supporters and those now coming around to the idea, who have
seemed to focus more narrowly on vaccines.
It remains unclear if countries will be able to see eye to eye, but with the
pandemic that has killed over 3.4 million people still far from over, there is
intense pressure on them to do so.
With the new revision on the table, MSF called for "governments to
immediately move towards text-based negotiations," insisting there was no
time to lose.
In light of the WTO's usual glacial pace in decision-making — with
agreements requiring consensus backing by all 164 member states — a deal could
meanwhile take time.
According to MSF, more than 100 countries overall now support the proposal,
including China and Russia.
A full 62 countries are now official co-sponsors of the proposal, with
Indonesia, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Namibia having joined in recent weeks.
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