Optimising Covid-19 TRIPS waiver.

LIKE every crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic has also brought some opportunities, two in particular. First, it has spurred innovation. In relatively no time, experimental vaccines started queuing up. The mRNA-based vaccine was developed which is a watershed innovation. This is going to profoundly change the future of prevention and therapeutics. Regulatory pathways for emergency use authorisation for these vaccines have also worked well.

Second, on May 5, the US announced support for the Covid-19 TRIPS waiver. This is also a major development. The director general of WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, has termed it as a 'monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19' and 'a powerful example of US leadership to address global health challenges'. It is indeed a paradigm shift in US trade policy which has always centred on intellectual property protection (IPP) ie time-limited monopoly on patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs etc. The US has always vehemently opposed any idea of giving concessions on IPP issues, whether it was the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health or the issuance of compulsory licences for medicines of public health significance.

What does this waiver mean and how can it enable developing countries to start the production of Covid-19 vaccines and related health technologies? And how can low- and middle-income countries, including Pakistan, benefit optimally from this waiver?

To begin with, there is no waiver at present. US support for a waiver means that as negotiations on the subject begin in Geneva in the coming weeks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the US will not oppose the proposal submitted by India and South Africa last October, backed by developing countries.

Once a consensus is reached, how will it be translated into action and who would benefit the most?

The Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations (1986-1993) culminated in the establishment of the WTO in 1995, which for the first time brought IPP on the agenda of international trade negotiations that resulted in the introduction of mandatory global standards of IPP through an agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). 'Minimum' TRIPS IPP standards include, in the case of patents, a monopoly of 20 years and protection of both process and product patents for all kinds of technologies. However, TRIPS also incorporated some public health safeguards (flexibilities) at the behest of the...