Pressure Mounts for WTO Waiver of IP Rights During Pandemic

More than 100 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have urged the World Trade Organization (WTO) to extend a waiver of intellectual property rights to help developing nations access COVID-19 treatments and vaccines during the pandemic.

Under the trade group’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, poor nations or “least-developed countries” (LDCs) have twice been allowed to avoid patent issues in the production of low-priced generic drugs for their populations, but this carve-out will end in July unless it is renewed.

The WTO is set to discuss the issue again on March 1, where developed nations including the U.S. are expected to press for the protection of intellectual property rights.

In a letter to the WTO, the NGOs called for an extension to be granted to poorer nations. “While some very modest progress may have been made, the LDCs continue to face daunting development challenges, now aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the letter on behalf of prominent NGOs, such as Public Citizen and Médecins Sans Frontières. “Extremely limited testing, health services and sanitation makes curbing COVID-19 in LDCs a massive challenge.” the letter adds.

And the idea has gained some traction among WTO members. In an Oct. 2, 2020, letter to the WTO, South Africa and India wrote that the waiver “should continue until widespread vaccination is in place globally and the majority of the world’s population has developed immunity.”

Read the NGO letter here: www.fdanews.com/02-08-21-CSOLettertoWTOMembers.pdf. — Martin Berman-Gorvine