India among 8 nations seeking 5-year patent waiver for Covid diagnostics
In a submission to the World Trade Organization, they said that diagnostics and therapeutics are «essential tools for a comprehensive approach to fight the pandemic, that it is not over».
The submission, made on behalf of 65 WTO members on Monday, came after the US refrained from taking sides in extending the waiver, which is applicable to Covid-19 vaccines only.
For almost two years, India, South Africa and 80 other WTO members have sought a response for future pandemics through exceptions in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement but the ministerial outcome of 2022 (MC12) only covered Covid-19 vaccines, with the US delaying an outcome on therapeutics and diagnostics.
«The MC12 Decision on the TRIPS agreement is extended mutatis mutandis for the production and supply of Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics,» India and others said in the draft decision text on Monday.
They asked the WTO to promptly respond to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the challenge of inequitable access to therapeutics and diagnostics, and «respond to the criticism that the decision on vaccines came too little too late».
Extension of the policy tools to therapeutics and diagnostics will result in a holistic approach to enable developing countries to address those intellectual property (IP) barriers that prevent the expansion and diversification of production and increase accessibility to crucial life-saving Covid-19 tools, they said.
As per the draft text, «omitting these vital tools» will deter the effectiveness of the decision that aims timely and affordable access to effective vaccines against the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The submission assumes significance as last week, the UK, the EU, the US,
