# \[e-drug\] India / South Africa proposal for WTO waiver from IP protections for COVID-19-related medical technologies: Twitter Storm, December 8 TOMORROW

**URL:** <https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-india-south-africa-proposal-for-wto-waiver-from-ip-protections-for-covid-19-related-medical-technologies-twitter-storm-december-8-tomorrow/46129>\
**Category:** e-drug\
**Created:** [December 7, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-india-south-africa-proposal-for-wto-waiver-from-ip-protections-for-covid-19-related-medical-technologies-twitter-storm-december-8-tomorrow/46129 "2020-12-07T05:00:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shailly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Shailly](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Shailly)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-india-south-africa-proposal-for-wto-waiver-from-ip-protections-for-covid-19-related-medical-technologies-twitter-storm-december-8-tomorrow/46129/1 "2020-12-07T05:00:51Z")

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E-DRUG: India/South Africa proposal for WTO waiver from IP protections for COVID-19-related medical technologies: Twitter Storm, December 8 TOMORROW  
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Dear All,

As many of you know that India and South Africa made a formal request to  
the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a waiver on certain provisions of  
the WTO TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)  
Agreement on 2 October to allow all countries to choose to neither grant  
nor enforce patents and other intellectual property (IP) related to  
COVID-19 drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other technologies for the  
duration of the pandemic, until global herd immunity is achieved.  
[see also [http://lists.healthnet.org/archive/html/e-drug/2020-11/msg00018.html\](http://lists.healthnet.org/archive/html/e-drug/2020-11/msg00018.html%5C)]

If approved, this waiver could be a real game changer to leverage easier  
collaboration and production of COVID-19 tools globally, and also to  
provide governments with the necessary legal basis to ensure access for  
their population during the pandemic. To know more about this waiver and  
why it can be a game changer, read this technical brief  
\<[https://msfaccess.org/india-and-south-africa-proposal-wto-waiver-ip-protections-covid-19-related-medical-technologies&gt](https://msfaccess.org/india-and-south-africa-proposal-wto-waiver-ip-protections-covid-19-related-medical-technologies&gt);

So far, nearly 100 countries have welcomed and shown support overall. But  
the waiver proposal is not being supported by multiple wealthy  
nations, including the US, the UK, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Australia,  
Norway, Switzerland and the European Union.

Ahead of the General Council meeting at WTO (10 Dec), we are launching a  
twitter storm to mobilize the global health movement, online audiences,  
followers and civil society to tweet a message simultaneously to create  
pressure on governments that have blocked the TRIPS waiver proposal at the  
WTO. We would like you all to join us in this initiative.

Please join this twitter storm on December 8, [9AM ET/3PM CET/ 7:30PM  
IST] with your organizational accounts as well as private ones. You can  
find all details, twitter handles, as well as graphics and tweets here:  
[https://msfaccess.org/nocovidmonopolies-twitter-storm-activist-toolkit](https://msfaccess.org/nocovidmonopolies-twitter-storm-activist-toolkit)

Thanks in advance for your support. Please feel free to get back to us  
Lara.Dovifat@berlin.msf.org/shailly.gupta@msf.org  
in case you have any questions.

Regards

Shailly

Shailly Gupta  
MSF Access Campaign  
Geneva  
+41-79 203 13 02  
shailly.gupta@msf.org