The Global Patent Debate | Proposal of f …

the limited and unequal access to vaccines dealing with Covid-19 has moved the hornet’s nest to the World Trade Organization (WTO), where the proposals are discussed. Led by India and South Africa, a group of countries Argentina wants make patents more flexible increase the production of vaccines. Instead, developed countries and other partners are calling, in line with the labs’ position, for the WTO to act as a trade facilitator to improve access to vaccines, i.e. accept the mechanism but don’t break it.

The first group of countries emphasizes the relevance of Intellectual property rights when it comes to explaining the limited access to vaccines, which makes sense in the case of middle-income countries like Argentina, which suffers from the paradox of having physical, technological and human resource capacity – in fact, mAbxience produces the active substance and now Richmond is doing the same with Sputnik V – and at the same time has limited vaccines for the huge health needs. Countries that primarily seek to protect the rights of their companies warn that there are other issues that play a role in the vaccine problem, such as difficulties in production and logistics of inputs.

The debate, in itself complex, takes place in a global regulatory framework with a bias in favor of the free market and with generally very long delays in concluding new agreements. It also takes place in a context of massive defects laboratories with delivery of vaccines to purchasing countries. And, above all, in the face of a dramatic and unique health image in modern history. In terms of international cooperation, so far the COVAX mechanism, coordination of purchases in favor of low- and middle-income countries. But there is no doubt that there is a blank space on the production.

Patents and vaccines

According to United Nations data, there are around 100 countries that have not yet received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccines and 75 percent of the vaccines applied are concentrated in just ten countries, which are the ones that produce the vaccines. . or they are the first allies of producers.

Intellectual property is one of the great global issues that are settled at the WTO. It is one of the foundations of capitalism, because it allows companies to appropriate the benefits of technological progress derived from investment.

In the case of vaccines, intellectual property encourages laboratories to invest in development but it also prevents, for example, a company from accessing the technological recipe. Without going any further, the recent news of local production of the Sputnik V vaccine by the Richmond laboratory also implies that so far there has been slack production capacity. This is a button example of the global situation, where production capacity is clearly underutilized. In a normal context, unequal access to technology and the privatization of vaccine development would be one more reason to complain about the system. In this photo of an exceptional situation, it takes on another color.

The rules

Intellectual property rights are regulated in the WTO by the chapter on TRIPS, which also includes the registration of trademarks, copyrights, geographical indications and industrial designs. Within the framework of rigid parameters and often designed to protect companies from state measures, the WTO has a space for intervention on patents. Article 8 of the TRIPS Agreement recognizes “the right of Members to adopt measures for reasons of public health and other reasons of public interest and to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights, to provided that these measures are consistent with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement “.

In fact, there was an amendment to TRIPS to facilitate access to retrovirals for the treatment of AIDS, although this started to be negotiated in 2005 and was not approved until 2017 because it required the approval of parliaments of two-thirds of the member states. .

the negociation

In October 2020, India and South Africa They have filed a request for exemption from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement with the WTO. “It would be applied for a number of years and even to generalize vaccine coverage around the world and immunize the majority of the world’s population. Members would review the exemption every year until it expires, ”they asked. The proposal is “co-sponsored” by Kenya, Eswatini, Mozambique, Pakistan, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, the African Group and the Group of Least Developed Countries. It has also received support from some 80 low- and middle-income countries, including Argentina.

This statement was echoed in the media and encouraged the WTO authorities to speak out in favor of finding solutions to facilitate access to vaccines. However, there was no concrete progress due to opposition from delegations from several developed countries, who “citing the role of intellectual property as innovation incentive In the fight against the current pandemic, they have called for a factual debate on any concrete example in which intellectual property was an obstacle to the manufacture of vaccines, ”read the minutes of the last meeting of the organization. multilateral.

Last week, the new WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called a closed-door meeting of producers, governments and others to discuss the issue. He said that “in the weeks and months to come, we expect concrete actions. These questions are not easy, but the political will and private sector engagement demonstrated today suggests that it is possible. “

Other issues

Developed countries, laboratories and also the WTO itself warn that even a temporary patent release does not solve all problems. Access to vaccines must be improved. But other aspects must be taken into account in addition to intellectual property. For example, the production of the Pfizer vaccine requires 380 supplies from 66 production sites in 19 countries. A very complex and urgent matter. The proposals that were presented are still under discussion, “he said. Page 12 Josefita Pardo de León, Legal Affairs Officer, WTO Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division.

On a related note, a recent joint statement by Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, New Zealand and Turkey calls on the WTO to “use its resources to accelerate in a tangible way. and pragmatic global vaccine distribution “through” discussions between vaccine developers, producers as well as other developers and producers of medical products related to Covid-19 with coordination from the World Health Organization to ensure that any underutilization of capacity is detected to increase global production. “They propose” to facilitate and promote the creation of new partnerships between actors of the health system and transfer of know-how and detect any obstacle to foreign trade which slows the production of vaccines “.