May 20, 2022

WTO Text Would Undermine Global Access to Medicines

Public Health Experts Call for a #TrueTRIPSWaiver

In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a waiver of World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property barriers that limit global production of COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. On March 15, 2022, a leaked text emerged that is dramatically different from — and significantly worse than — the original proposal. The WTO Director-General formally introduced that text with negligible changes on May 2, 2022. The worst elements of this counterproposal can be traced directly to the European Union and the United States. 

Civil society and academic experts around the world have called the counterproposal “the lowest common denominator,” an “abomination,” and “worse than nothing.”  But it’s not a done deal yet.

This text: 

• Is worse than the status quo and would actually impose new barriers on countries attempting to remove intellectual property barriers and increase COVID medicines production. Instead of waiving barriers, it would impose new conditions limiting the existing WTO rules that now allow countries to issue compulsory licenses for patented products, for example a new obligation to identify all patents covered by a waiver application.
• Does not cover COVID tests or treatments. The leaked text would only cover vaccines, at a stage in the pandemic when world leaders acknowledge that testing and treatments are critically important. Tests and treatments are ostensibly to be considered six months later if this text is agreed, but the WTO is notorious for missing deadlines.
• Does not cover all of the intellectual property barriers to COVID medicine access. It reiterates existing rules on patents while adding new barriers. It does not even address the other categories of intellectual property covered in the original waiver proposal: trade secrets, undisclosed data, copyright, and industrial design. Leaving trade secret and other barriers in place would impede the timely expansion of mRNA production and other cutting-edge technologies. Many key COVID-19 vaccines and medicines are protected by thorny thickets of intertwined IP protection, not just a patent or two.
• Excludes entire countries. It applies only to “developing countries” that “exported <10%” of the world’s vaccines in 2021 (so appears to exclude China and Brazil), as well as developed countries that might export to countries in need. It may also inadvertently exclude least developed countries.

Civil Society Reactions From the U.S. and Around the World

• Global Unions Statement to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12)
• 170+ US Public Health, Faith, Trade Groups Urge White House To Reject Alternative WTO IP Text
• South African Civil Society Open Call to Minister Patel and the Government of South Africa on the ‘Leaked’ WTO-EU-US Text (TRIPS Waiver)
  • South African Individuals and Organizations Can Sign This ‘Open Letter’ to Minister Patel and the South African Government
• Global CSO Letter to President Ramaphosa and Prime Minister Modi signed by 300+ groups
  • As reported in Common Dreams: Rich Nations, Big Pharma Still Blocking ‘Early Exit’ From Pandemic: Experts
  • As reported in Business Day: Activists urge SA and India to hold firm on Covid IP waiver at WTO talks
• European Civil Society Letter to European Commissioners et al. Demanding EU End Its Push for Unsound Proposal on IP Rights and COVID-19
• U.K. Civil Society calls for full TRIPS waiver at WTO negotiations, criticising ‘deeply flawed’ Government consultation
• U.S. Health, Human Rights, Consumer and Faith Leaders Urge President Biden to Reject Leaked WTO Text and Fight for a Waiver of WTO IP Barriers Limiting Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, Treatments and Tests
  • As reported in Reuters: No agreement yet on WTO vaccine patent waiver compromise, U.S. says
• Health Justice Initiative Compilation of Resources on Leaked Text
• Public Citizen: Statement: Leaked Proposal on COVID Medicines Waiver Helps No One But Floundering WTO
• TNW: WTO Secretariat misleads on status & content of intellectual property text, perpetuates confusion
• Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières): Draft COVID-19 proposal at WTO may not resolve inequitable access to medicines
• Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières): Draft text is NOT the intellectual property Waiver for COVID-19 medical tools people need
• Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières): Comments on the Patent Listing Requirements in the Draft Text of the TRIPS Waiver Negotiation
• Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières): Compromise neglects COVID-19 treatments and diagnostics and fails to address intellectual property barriers beyond patents, but there’s still time to get it right
• Oxfam: Media reaction in response to reports of a compromise on the vaccines TRIPS waiver
• Indian civil society says Indian government must “resist the unreasonable demands of the EU and U.S.” 
  • As reported in The Economic Times: Civil society asks PM to reject WTO deal
• Public Services International: Too little, too late: We need a permanent TRIPS waiver mechanism
• Human Rights Watch: More Effort Needed for Meaningful Outcome at WTO on Covid-19
• Health GAP: The Quad TRIPS Waiver Text is not a Compromise; It is an Abomination
• People’s Vaccine Alliance Letter: Credibility and future of the WTO is at stake unless the EU agrees to a genuine waiver of TRIPS
• People’s Vaccine Alliance: It took too long, but the EU has finally admitted that IP rules & pharma monopolies are a barrier to vaccinating the world, a tribute to millions of campaigners who have demanded a #PeoplesVaccine. However, this proposal is not enough.
• Knowledge Ecology International (KEI): QUAD’s tentative agreement on TRIPS and COVID 19
• Trade Justice: Statement: COVID IP Waiver Proposal Is Too Weak to Help End the Pandemic
• ReThink Trade: Leaked Draft WTO COVID Text Would Not Improve Access to Vaccines, Altogether Excludes Treatments and Tests
• The Left Political Party in the European Union: EU ‘TRIPS Waiver’ Proposal a Mere Face-Saving Exercise
• Salud por Derecho: La suspensión de patentes de las vacunas covid: un acuerdo descafeinado
• Just Treatment: THE NEW TRIPS WAIVER PROPOSAL WON’T END DEADLY COVID MONOPOLIES
• Feminists for a People’s Vaccine: WTO has to go back to the negotiating table. Improve the text!
• Australian civil society says “Leaked proposal on WTO COVID-19 monopolies a small step but more needed for equitable global access to vaccines and treatments”

Academics, Experts and In-Depth Analyses

• Economist Joseph Stiglitz and Unaids executive director Winnie Byanyima Urge SA and India to stand firm on Covid-19 IP waiver
• Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Rohinton P. Medhora, Srinath Reddy, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Imraan Valodia Letter to PM Modi
  • As reported in The Hindu: Experts write to PM against WTO proposal on COVID-19 vaccine waivers
  • As reported in The Leaflet: Leaked Text Incorporates Stringent TRIPS Plus Elements, Global Calls for Rejection Increase
• Experts write to PM against WTO proposal on COVID-19 vaccine waivers
• Ban Ki-Moon in The Times of India: India, South Africa must not accept half-measures by the West when lives are on line during Covid-19 pandemic
• World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: To end the #COVID19 pandemic, as much as we need #VaccinEquity, we also need equitable access to tests & treatments. That’s why @WHO has strongly supported India and South Africa’s call for an intellectual property waiver. It would save millions of lives & livelihoods.
• The Covid-19 TRIPS Waiver Process in Critical Review: An Appraisal of the WTO DG Text (IP/C/W/688) and Recommendations for Minimum Modifications
• South African academics urge President Cyril Ramaphosa to reject leaked proposal
• Muhammad Yunus: Preparing for the next pandemic: Time to follow a social business model for patent-free global medicine production
• Economists Jayati Ghosh and Joseph Stiglitz plus Oxfam Pan-Africa Director Peter Kamalingin to Ramaphosa: “a bad deal is worse than no deal”
  • As reported in Daily Maverick: Ramaphosa urged not to endorse ‘sham of a waiver’ for Covid-19 patents
  • As reported in Business Day: Joseph Stiglitz urges SA to reject compromise on Covid-19 patent waiver
  • As reported in Euractiv: South Africa urged to reject EU offer on COVID waiver
• Professor Brook Baker: The Quad TRIPS Waiver Text is not a Compromise; It is an Abomination
• Professor Brook Baker: US, EU draft to amend India’s TRIPS waiver proposal shows West hypocrisy at its best
• Professor Brook Baker et al.: Summary Comments on the March 15 TRIPS Waiver Leaked Text
• Professor Jane Kelsey: Why a leaked WTO ‘solution’ for a COVID patent waiver is unworkable and won’t make enough difference for developing countries
• Professor Sean Flynn: Statement of PIJIP Director Sean Flynn on the Leaked COVID-19 TRIPS Waiver Proposal
• KEI’s Jamie Love: The Proposed TRIPS Compromise Risks Setting Several Bad Precedents
• KEI’s Jamie Love: Pandemic: Needled by the rulebook
• KEI’s Jamie Love: The proposed WTO agreement on intellectual property and COVID 19 vaccines should not require that non-voluntary use of patents list all patents covered
• KEI’s Jamie Love: The Quad WTO proposal on COVID 19 and TRIPS proposal is tied for the 5th best option for exports
• Rethink Trade’s Lori Wallach: Draft WTO COVID Text Leaked 3/15 Wouldn’t Improve Vaccine Access and Altogether Excludes Treatments and Tests: Beware the Ides of March Indeed!
• Max Lawson, Oxfam and People’s Vaccine Alliance: COVID Vaccines: WTO Compromise Over India and South Africa’s Proposal is Disappointing
• Max Lawson, Oxfam and People’s Vaccine Alliance: The EU’s Compromise on COVID Vaccines Is a Bad Deal for India
• Oxfam America response to WTO waiver proposal
• Boston University Global Development Policy Center: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Ensuring a TRIPS Waiver Drives Health Equity
• A Plan to Fix Vaccine Inequity Offers False Comfort

Learn More:

• Read the March 15, 2022 leaked text
• Proposed TRIPS waiver a hollow diplomatic compromise with little practical impact
• In These Times: New “Compromise” on IP Waiver for Covid Vaccines Is Worse Than No Deal, Activists Say
• Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières): Neither the waiver people need nor a solution fit for a pandemic
• Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières): Video – Why we’re asking governments to reject the leaked text on COVID-19 at the WTO
• Geneva Health Files: The Lowest Common Denominator: The Quad Text on the TRIPS Waiver
• Verfassungsblog: Not Much of a Waiver: The Leaked Draft Text of the TRIPS Waiver Compromise
• The Guardian: Global powers inch closer to agreement to waive Covid vaccine patents
• El Cohete a la Luna: Un waiver que no es tal: Acuerdo reservado para eximir de patentes a las vacunas anti-Covid bajo condiciones muy estrictas
• The Hindu Editorial: Too little, too late: On COVID-19 vaccines and patent rights
• The Times of India: ​​Patent waiver will be of little use for India, developing countries
• The leaked WTO COVID patent waiver text promises a very bad deal
• Rich Nations, Big Pharma Still Blocking ‘Early Exit’ From Pandemic: Experts
• Activists urge SA and India to hold firm on Covid IP waiver at WTO talks