India to seek US support on global patent waivers for more Covid gear

India will seek support for patent waivers on a wider range of Covid-19-related medical products from the US, which has backed such exemptions only for vaccines.

While the US has supported the waiver only for vaccines – after having opposed the main proposal since last October – most developing countries favour the inclusion of vaccines, treatments, diagnostic kits, protective gear, ventilators and therapeutics.

India and South Africa proposed in October that all World Trade Organization members agree to a temporary waiver of certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of Covid-19.


“Our proposal is for all Covid-19-related products including vaccines, treatments and therapeutics. At the text-based negotiations, the most intense debate will be on the scope of the waiver,” an official said. “They will go on parallel tracks,” said another official.

While the joint proposal by India and South Africa to lift barriers to timely access of affordable medical products including vaccines and medicines or scaling-up of research, development, manufacturing and supply of essential medical products, is now supported by 130 countries, the US has only partially supported it.

Cosponsors, consensus
In an attempt to gain consensus, India and South Africa are now reworking the proposal and a revised text is likely to be submitted to the WTO later this month before the formal TRIPS Council meeting scheduled for early June. Since many countries had supported the original proposal, India and South Africa will have to onboard the cosponsors for the revision. “We have not reached there yet,” the official said commenting on whether initial cosponsors of the proposal have agreed on the revision, adding that it is still early stages of the revision.