E-DRUG: Letter to urge TRIPS Council members to support the COVID-19 waiver
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Dear colleagues,
In light of the upcoming meeting of the TRIPS Council, members of the Working Group on Trade Treaties and Access to Medicines hosted by the Global Development Policy Center have initiated a letter to urge TRIPS Council members to support the COVID-19 waiver as proposed by South Africa, India, Kenya and Eswatini. This letter will be sent to missions and trade ministries this week.
The working group would like to encourage sign ons from other scholars working in this area - if you would like to support, please add your name to this sign on form
<https://forms.gle/tzRmwjbqoZ9zJh7n7>:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmZ_1cbCJeag4PpdN7nJs8dZRO1JUV5MJMnDyEt4PnC--FKg/viewform
The letter is pasted at the bottom of this email, and can be accessed by google doc here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tx-r1pBYJEEDkeHeOpNAZmmKpC4zKWcLa5GGTKzHPT8/edit>:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tx-r1pBYJEEDkeHeOpNAZmmKpC4zKWcLa5GGTKzHPT8/edit
We will be publishing the letter in advance of the meeting this week, and will continue to add and update signatures to the letter. We hope you can join us in circulating to any networks or listservs that may be interested in supporting.
Thank you,
Rachel Thrasher
Global Development Policy Center
Boston University
November 12, 2020
Open Letter to TRIPS Council Members
Experts on trade and access to medicines call for WTO Members to support TRIPS Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccine
Dear Members of the TRIPS Council,
We, the undersigned, a collective of researchers and academics working on the impact of trade treaties on access to medicines, call on WTO Members, and especially the members of the TRIPS Council, to vote in favor of the proposal put forward by South Africa, India, Kenya and Eswatini to waive certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement relating to the "prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19."
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was consensus at the United Nations and World Health Assembly that international collaboration would be necessary to face this international crisis and curb the spread of COVID-19. In particular, countries saw the importance of scaling up manufacturing and knowledge sharing so more people can have equitable access to life-saving medical technologies, treatments and (eventually) vaccines.
Nevertheless, eight months into the pandemic, there has been no effective agreed global solution to ensure such affordable access. Currently, domestic intellectual property barriers, such as patents, trade secrets, data rights, copyright, and industrial designs, prevent any meaningful knowledge-sharing and technology transfer. This has led to limited product development worldwide and an inability to expand supply to meet the demand for effective medical technologies. Low and middle-income countries including Least Developed Countries have experienced shortages of medical products, including diagnostics and are likely to continue to face shortages of new treatments and vaccines as they become available.
<https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/small-group-rich-nations-have-bought-more-half-future-supply-leading-covid-19>
A global pandemic is not the time to follow a "business as usual" approach by protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs) and granting monopoly rights to pharmaceutical companies. Instead, governments should take the chance to secure a People's Vaccine as a global public good.
<https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2020/may/20200514_covid19-vaccine>
The TRIPS agreement has several provisions allowing action at the domestic level, namely use of Article 73 to invoke a security exception to the rules and declare a temporary suspension of IPRs during an emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the more familiar use of compulsory licenses under Articles 31 and 44.2 (judicial licenses). However, countries will need to make changes in their domestic laws and regulations which may take a long time. To expand access to biologic medicines and vaccines, there would also have to be adoption and use of exceptions to trade secrets, data rights, and other IPRs that protect cell lines, sophisticated manufacturing know-how, industrial designs, and other aspects of these key health products.
These national-level exceptions, while important, do not go far enough to protect vulnerable countries and groups during a pandemic where time is of the essence, and when a truly global response is essential. The waiver, implemented internationally, would give WTO Members complete freedom to operate and to build their capacities quickly to produce medical and health products without the threat of state-to-state dispute settlement.
Industry and some countries have argued that a waiver is unnecessary because of the availability of voluntary measures. Thus far, however, the WHO's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, designed to facilitate the voluntary sharing of knowledge and to promote deep technology transfer has been rejected by the R&D pharmaceutical industry.
<https://bioethics.com/archives/51144>
They have spurned the option of voluntary measures, so the waiver is an appropriate and necessary response.
We have witnessed shortages of IP-protected diagnostic tests, medical equipment and personal protective equipment in developing countries, and there will be similar or even greater shortages of promising IP-protected monoclonal antibodies, novel antivirals, and vaccines. Already, pharmaceutical companies have started filing patent infringement suits
against COVID-19 treatments and technologies, which makes collaborative research and development and expanded supply even more challenging.
In addition to this public health crisis, the economic consequences of the pandemic are threatening lives and livelihoods. The World Bank has estimated that 150 million more people will be pushed into extreme poverty by the end of this year. The International Labour Organisation found that 500 million jobs have been put in jeopardy already. There is a debt crisis on the horizon with many developing countries forced to spend more on servicing existing debts than on their health budgets as supply chains collapse, remittances plummet, and capital outflows reach unprecedented levels.
These dire realities demand a swift and decisive response. We strongly urge the TRIPS Council to urgently report the waiver request to the WTO General Council, and for the General Council to adopt the waiver proposal as an important step in removing barriers to adequate supply and affordable prices for life-saving COVID-19 health technologies.
We remind Member States that countries that prefer not to implement the waiver domestically will not be obliged to do so. We also remind Member States that a three-quarters vote will be sufficient for passage of the waiver request and that they should not allow the call for "consensus" to permit upper-income Member States that have secured preferential and disproportionate access to promising diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, to veto their collective right to safeguard their populations as well. Global solidarity and the imperative of truly equitable access require passage of the proposed waiver.
"Wirtz, Veronika" <vwirtz@bu.edu>