India, South Africa and 60 other countries have sought a 3 year waiver on Intellectual Property Rights for Covid-19 medical products at the World Trade Organization. A fresh proposal submitted by these countries also has a provision to review the duration annually. The fresh proposal focuses on health products and technologies and sets the stage for discussions on specifics. Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is likely to take up the new proposal at an informal meeting on 31st of this month.
The duration of the waiver has to be practical for manufacturing to be feasible and viable, the co-sponsors said in the revised proposal submitted to the WTO on Friday. They said the revised proposal reflects growing concerns over mutations and the emergence of new variants of the Covid-19 virus. It also takes into account the discussions and feedback received from others, with the aim to progress to text-based discussions.
The previous draft proposed by India and South Africa focussed on the prevention, treatment or containment of Covid-19 which was termed broad. The revised proposal seeks to add specificity to the decision text following concern that the original decision text was too broad.
The new proposal talks of health products and technologies.