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WTO to intensify Covid vaccine supply negotiations

MSF demonstrate outside WTO headquarters in Geneva about TRIPS waiver
The NGO Doctors without Borders (MSF) has been campaigning at the World Trade Organization for a waiver on Covid-19 vaccine patents. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

World Trade Organization (WTO) member states have taken a step closer toward boosting Covid-19 vaccine supply to poorer countries.

South Africa and India, supported by many emerging countries, have been pushing for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights on vaccines and other treatments. This could allow local manufacturers to produce Covid shots and other products.

On Wednesday, following a two-day meeting, a WTO panel agreed to start a “text-based process” to bring together proposals about improving efforts to get vaccines to poorer countries via the Geneva-based WTO’s complex system of rules.

New, informal talks will start on June 17 among members of the panel, with a view to pulling together a report for a meeting of WTO ambassadors on July 21-22.

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“This is a major breakthrough – after eight months of stalling,” Leena Menghany, global IP adviser for medical aid group MSF, told Reuters. MSF backs a waiver.

Wealthy nations, many home to large pharmaceutical firms, have dug their heels in arguing that a waiver would not boost production and could undermine future research and development on vaccines and therapeutics.

The European Union has presented a plan, backed by Britain, Switzerland and South Korea, that instead seeks to limit export restrictions, expand production and facilitate the use of compulsory licences.

During the two-day meeting in Geneva this week, Switzerland rejected the proposal to lift intellectual property rights for at least three years. It warned that such a move would not provide any future protection for manufacturers. This would thus reduce states’ abilities to prepare for the next pandemic, it argued.

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