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The WTO’s TRIPS council will kick off its series of informal meetings on the proposed intellectual property (IP) waiver extension for Covid diagnostics and therapeutics this week to reach a decision on the crucial issue by the deadline of December 17.
India, South Africa, Egypt and Indonesia have been insisting that the deadline be met as there was an immediate need for waiver extension with patent filings for Covid therapeutics outnumbering those on vaccines.
“The first of the three informal meetings on IP waiver extension for Covid diagnostics and therapeutics will begin on November 2. By now, members are more or less familiar with each other’s positions and arguments and hopefully some movement would take place. It will be followed by another meeting on November 16 and the third one on December 6. The idea is to reach a decision on the matter by December 17,” an official tracking the matter told businessline.
To address the glaring Covid-19 vaccine inequity existing between developed and developing nations, it was decided at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in June this year that a temporary IP waiver for Covid-19 vaccines should be extended under specific conditions. However, a decision on diagnostics and therapeutics was postponed by six months, till December 17.
“There is a huge clamour against the proposed move from the industry in developed countries such as the US with bodies such as the US Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber’s Global Innovation Policy Center asking the Biden Administration to oppose such a move in favour of ‘real solutions’,” the source pointed out.
The October meeting
At the last TRIPS council meeting on October 12, the US, together with China, Uruguay, Peru, Chinese Taipei and Mexico, sought some flexibility on the deadline as they informed that they were holding domestic consultations and taking inputs on the use, demand, supply and distribution of diagnostics and therapeutics to treat Covid-19.
India, South Africa, Maldives, Kenya, the least developed countries group, Sri Lanka, Brazil and many other developing nations sought a blanket approach of the extension to therapeutics and diagnostics, and insisted that the waiver should be adopted without any changes in language of definition.
In a joint paper submitted to the TRIPS council, India, South Africa, Egypt and Indonesia pointed out that there were 5,293 patent applications filed related to Covid-19 technologies during 2020-2021 and the filings for therapeutics outnumbered those on vaccines at an approximate 4:1 ratio.
Repurposed drugs
Moreover, many of these patent applications are for repurposed drugs rather than innovative products developed to treat Covid-19 and that government funding had supported a significant part of the research and clinical trial efforts.
Some patent applications may face challenges, but those granted will delay the entry of generic products that would otherwise increase global supply of Covid-19 treatments, the joint paper noted.
A group of countries, including Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and Korea, the European Union members and the UK, argued that they wanted to first see conclusive evidence that IP obstructed the access to therapeutics and diagnostics before considering the extension.
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