India and South Africa called for TRIPS waiver of certain intellectual property provisions of Covid-19 vaccines in a communication to the WTO in October last year so that people in developing countries get access to life-saving vaccines. TRIPS allows countries to negotiate compulsory licences, a flexibility that was reaffirmed in the Doha Declaration. However, compulsory licences must be negotiated by each WTO member country and for each patent or other protection applying to each individual product. Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan said on Friday the proposal had received support from several countries.
India and South Africa had approached the global trade body in October, calling on it to waive parts of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). The suspension of rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information would ensure “timely access to affordable medical products including vaccines and medicines or to scaling-up of research, development, manufacturing and supply of medical products essential to combat COVID-19,” they said.
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