South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday asked the World Trade Organisation to suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines to bridge the huge gap in vaccination rates worldwide.
India and South Africa last year brought forward the
intellectual property waiver proposal before the WTO but there has been no
consensus.
Proponents argue the temporary removal of IP rights will
boost production in developing countries and address the dramatic inequity in
access.
But there is fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants
and their host countries, which insist patents are not the main roadblocks to
scaling up production and warn the move could hamper innovation.
“The world is at this moment experiencing the debilitating
effects of inequality in the patterns of global production,” Ramaphosa told a
WTO round table by video link on the pandemic and trade-related issues.
“It is said that less than three per cent of adults are
fully vaccinated in most low-income countries, compared to almost 60 per cent
in high-income countries. This gross inequality is both unjust and
counterproductive,” said Ramaphosa, whose country is the worst hit by
coronavirus in Africa both in terms of infections and deaths.
“Passing a time-bound targeted TRIPS waiver as proposed by
South Africa and India — and now supported by many countries around the world —
is urgent if we are to save millions of lives.”
TRIPS is a comprehensive WTO agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights which is used to resolve trade disputes
over IP.
Pressure is mounting for an accord ahead of the 12th
ministerial conference of the WTO, which runs from November 30 to December 3 in
Geneva.
WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the yawning chasm in
vaccination rates between the haves and the have nots was “devastating for the
lives and livelihoods of Africans” and “morally unacceptable”.
She added: “That is why it is so important to deliver
results at the WTO in the weeks remaining before our 12 ministerial
conference.”
AFP