India urges WTO to relax intellectual property rules for COVID-19, South Africa supports

India and South Africa have urged the World Trade Organisation to waive some provisions regarding intellectual property rights so that COVID-19 vaccine development could be fast-tracked. According to reports, relaxing the provisions pertaining to intellectual property rights could not only speed up the vaccine development process but would also allow poorer and developing countries to gain access to it.

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Joint submission urges WTO to waive IP rules

As per reports, the joint submission to the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights argues that if the existing safeguard is not removed then certain countries, particularly developing ones which have borne the brunt of the pandemic, will find it hard to gain access to the COVID-19 pandemic and other relevant medicines.

Many Western and European countries such as US, Canada, Germany and the UK have already managed to secure millions of doses of potential COVID-19 vaccine without even knowing if they will work. Critics argue that when a vaccine is finally developed and approved, rich countries may hoard the vaccine in order to inoculate their populations first. Poor and developing countries are not in a position to spend billions on potential vaccines, especially since their economies have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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As per reports, Leena Menghaney, who heads the access campaign in South Asia for international aid group Doctors Without Borders has stated that it is crucial that other member governments of the WTO support this. She added that it was importnat to ensure that vaccines, drugs and other medical tools needed for COVID-19 can be scaled up by countries and their manufacturers without facing protracted negotiations for licenses.

India and South Africa's joint submission reportedly seeks waivers in rules that relate to multiple areas such as copyright, industrial designs, patents and the protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets. The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 34 million people worldwide with the global death toll crossing 1,000,000. The US has reported more than 7.3 million positive COVID-19 cases and a death toll of over 200,000.

(With AP inputs)

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