Coronavirus: They ask to suspend the patents of the va …

Countries that promote Temporary exemption from coronavirus vaccine patents at the World Trade Organization (WTO) presented in the last hours a new proposal establishing that the suspension is “for at least three years”, with the aim of reversing the position of those who still oppose it.

More than 100 countries support the initiative, including Argentina, and for three weeks also the United States, on a proposal originally presented by South Africa and India in October of last year.

The new proposal is presented a few days before the start of the annual meeting of the World Health Organization, in which increasing vaccine production will be a central issue. Also coincides with a G20 summit on health in which the leaders of several countries insisted on the need for a more equitable distribution of anti-ovid vaccines.

The fact that The U.S. government will announce its readiness to negotiate patent suspension earlier this month, at a time when the country is making rapid progress in vaccinating its adult population, he expressed hope that talks could begin on this subject at the WTO.

However, as decisions in the WTO are taken by consensus, reached the opposition shown so far, among others, by the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the headquarters of the big pharmaceutical companies, to not reach an agreement.

To reverse these positions, the initiators of the initiative sent the Geneva-based organization (Switzerland) an amended version of the original proposal which specifies that the exemption would be “at least for three years”.

The previous text has been criticized for the vagueness of the term, as it only specified that the suspension would last until “widespread vaccination worldwide is achieved and the majority of the population is vaccinated”.

In justifying the amendment, countries indicated that there remain “many uncertainties” in the fight against the coronavirus such as the duration of immunity of vaccines already widely administered and their effectiveness against new variants.

However, they specify that it will be the General Council of the WTO, which analyzes all aspects related to intellectual property rights, which will examine whether there are “exceptional circumstances derived from the pandemic” justifying if this suspension ends sooner. or should be extended. .

“Duration must be practical for manufacture (of immunizers) to be feasible and achievable. These complexities suggest the need for flexible duration,” they argued.

In the document, the driving countries also defend that the patent exemption concerns “all health products and technologies” to “prevent, treat and contain” covid-19, whether it is immunizing, its raw material or the tests.

This may a priori conflict with the position of the United States, which in the statement which supported the initiative officially speaks of temporarily releasing the intellectual property of vaccines, but does not include absolutely all treatments and medical equipment.

“The need to diversify and increase production is urgent. The global pandemic demands a response based on unity, solidarity and multilateral cooperation. There are exceptional circumstances which justify exemptions from (intellectual property) obligations” , indicates the document presented on behalf of the co-sponsors of the proposal

The intellectual property debate at the WTO will continue in informal meetings next Monday, with the idea of ​​reaching a consensus for the vote that will take place at the General Council meeting on June 8-9.

The task will not be easy as European countries argued last week at the G20-hosted World Health Summit that their decision was to give leftover vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, but not to grant patents on drugs.

During the meeting, pharmaceutical companies, big opponents of the proposed intellectual property exemption, also pledged to provide at least 1.3 billion doses to countries where few vaccines reach today. They are Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson: the first will provide 1 billion doses, the third approximately 100,000 and the last 200 million.

On the contrary, the World Health Organization (WHO) and leading voices on the subject such as Médecins sans frontières supports the initiative ensuring that it can expand the production capacity of vaccines and make them more accessible.

“A handful of countries that have purchased large quantities of vaccines are acting as if the pandemic is over. Others are experiencing serious peaks in hospitalizations and deaths, ”summed up WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, calling for greater equity in access to medicines.