Sakshi Education
By Srirangam Sriram, Sriram's IAS, New Delhi.
On 2 October, India and South Africa sent a joint communication to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council of the World Trade Organisation, the multilateral institution formed to promote free trade between countries. The communication asked the body to recommend a waiver of major intellectual-property provisions of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPS) agreement for technologies to prevent, contain and treat COVID-19. The proposal was made in the middle of the global race to develop medicines and vaccines against the coronavirus.
It said that it is important for WTO members to work together to ensure that intellectual property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information do not create barriers to the timely access to affordable medical products including vaccines and medicines or to scaling-up of research, development, manufacturing and supply of medical products essential to combat COVID-19.
At the heart of the debate about access to COVID-19 related vaccines, diagnostics and medicines are the contentious provisions of the TRIPS agreement. The WTO largely functions on the assumption that free trade helps increase the wealth of the nations and is thereby one of the pathways for poverty reduction. Intellectual- property rights or IPR recognised under the TRIPS agreement include patents, trademarks, and copyrights. These provisions provide monopoly rights to “innovator” companies, thereby preventing competition. Such monopolies, when applied to health-related products such as medicines, diagnostics, medical valves or even masks hinder accessibility and affordability by denying the early entry of generic products into the market.
The reason for granting patents to innovators is to encourage research and development by bulk investment; and reward path-breaking innovations. However, patents have worked against patient welfare. Moreover, most basic molecular research is not done by pharmaceutical companies themselves but in public universities funded by taxpayer money.
Members of the WTO recognised public health barriers that intellectual property rights and TRIPS created at the organisation’s Doha ministerial summit in 2001. They agreed to allow TRIPS provisions to be interpreted in such a manner as to protect public health. The Doha Declaration that emerged from the summit allowed use of provisions like compulsory licensing and parallel imports, which allowed governments to suspend or revoke patent monopolies and allow generic manufacturing during emergencies like the current Covid-19 pandemic.
India and South Africa said that there were several reports about intellectual property rights hindering or potentially hindering timely provisioning of affordable medical products to COVID-19 patients and that a particular concern for countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity were the requirements of cumbersome and lengthy process of the import and export of pharmaceutical products.
Many countries, especially the developing ones, may face institutional and legal difficulties when using flexibilities available in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) like compulsory licensing and parallel imports.
Beyond patents, other intellectual property rights may also pose a barrier like copyrights and trademarks, with limited options to overcome those barriers.
The proposal submitted that the waiver should continue until widespread vaccination was in place globally, and the majority of the world’s population had developed immunity.
It said that it is important for WTO members to work together to ensure that intellectual property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information do not create barriers to the timely access to affordable medical products including vaccines and medicines or to scaling-up of research, development, manufacturing and supply of medical products essential to combat COVID-19.
At the heart of the debate about access to COVID-19 related vaccines, diagnostics and medicines are the contentious provisions of the TRIPS agreement. The WTO largely functions on the assumption that free trade helps increase the wealth of the nations and is thereby one of the pathways for poverty reduction. Intellectual- property rights or IPR recognised under the TRIPS agreement include patents, trademarks, and copyrights. These provisions provide monopoly rights to “innovator” companies, thereby preventing competition. Such monopolies, when applied to health-related products such as medicines, diagnostics, medical valves or even masks hinder accessibility and affordability by denying the early entry of generic products into the market.
The reason for granting patents to innovators is to encourage research and development by bulk investment; and reward path-breaking innovations. However, patents have worked against patient welfare. Moreover, most basic molecular research is not done by pharmaceutical companies themselves but in public universities funded by taxpayer money.
Members of the WTO recognised public health barriers that intellectual property rights and TRIPS created at the organisation’s Doha ministerial summit in 2001. They agreed to allow TRIPS provisions to be interpreted in such a manner as to protect public health. The Doha Declaration that emerged from the summit allowed use of provisions like compulsory licensing and parallel imports, which allowed governments to suspend or revoke patent monopolies and allow generic manufacturing during emergencies like the current Covid-19 pandemic.
India and South Africa said that there were several reports about intellectual property rights hindering or potentially hindering timely provisioning of affordable medical products to COVID-19 patients and that a particular concern for countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity were the requirements of cumbersome and lengthy process of the import and export of pharmaceutical products.
Many countries, especially the developing ones, may face institutional and legal difficulties when using flexibilities available in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) like compulsory licensing and parallel imports.
Beyond patents, other intellectual property rights may also pose a barrier like copyrights and trademarks, with limited options to overcome those barriers.
The proposal submitted that the waiver should continue until widespread vaccination was in place globally, and the majority of the world’s population had developed immunity.Published date : 15 Dec 2020 12:49PM
