WTO Intellectual Property Rights Proposal Gains No Traction in Win for Pharma Companies

India’s and South Africa’s proposal to temporarily waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and medicines was stopped once again by opposition from wealthy Western nations, including the U.S., during the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s meeting last week, in a victory for the pharma industry.

The meeting of the organization’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) discussed the proposal, which seeks to improve access to vaccines and treatments for lower-income countries by allowing WTO members to refuse to grant or enforce patents and other intellectual property rights for COVID-19 products until mass vaccination is achieved.

But as in previous meetings in December and October 2020, the proposal again faced opposition from the U.S., the EU and the UK, and no agreement was reached. Opponents of the proposal asked during the meeting for concrete examples in which intellectual property rights would block manufacturing and vaccine access in a way that couldn’t be resolved by TRIPS flexibilities already in place, the WTO said.

The opposing nations and the pharma industry argued that it would impede innovation for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and ultimately hinder global pandemic efforts.

The further rejection of the proposal is a win for PhRMA, which called on President Biden prior to the meeting to oppose India’s and South Africa’s proposition. The trade group called intellectual property “the foundation for both the development and sharing of new technologies” and stressed its importance to drugmakers during the pandemic (DID, March 9).

Activist groups have responded with disappointment at the outcome of the talks. Oxfam, a group of charitable organizations, labeled the decision “a massive missed opportunity to speed up and scale up the production of lifesaving vaccines worldwide.”

The TRIPS Council is set to meet again on June 8-9, but WTO members agreed to think about holding additional meetings next month to discuss the intellectual property rights waiver. — James Miessler