On Friday, wealthy countries reportedly blocked India and South Africa-led efforts at the World Trade Organisation, seeking a temporary wa...
On Friday, wealthy countries reportedly blocked India and South Africa-led efforts at the World Trade Organisation, seeking a temporary waiver of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights obligations to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 drugs, vaccines and medical products. The proposal, which has the support of developing nations, the World Health Organisation and several NGOs in public health like Medecins sans Frontieres, will now go before the WTO general council early next month.
“If rich countries prefer profits to life, they will kill it by tying it down in technicalities,” news agency Reuters quoted a delegate who had supported the motion to waive the intellectual property rights on the drugs and vaccines as saying.
Scroll.in spoke to KM Gopakumar, an expert on the global intellectual property regime, on the significance of the proposal, especially as a few rich nations hoard more than half of the expected vaccine supply.
Can you explain the need for exemptions from intellectual property protection and how this will translate into more equitable access to Covid-19 medical products for developing countries like ours?
The joint waiver proposal from India, South Africa, Kenya, Eswatini, Mozambique and Pakistan, if adopted, will give the freedom to WTO member states to suspend the protection and the enforcement of certain types of intellectual property rights with regards...
