The European Union is now the main obstacle to a global deal to waive intellectual property rights on COVID vaccines, medicines and diagnostics.
Temporarily waiving intellectual property rights via the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS agreement) would be a crucial first step in boosting production of COVID-19 vaccines – and getting them into the arms of billions of people outside the Global North.
India and South Africa proposed the measure to the WTO last October, and it has since gathered support from more than 100 low- and middle-income countries, as well as a global civil society movement backed by Oxfam International, the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and even the Pope. After initial opposition, the US is now backing a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights, albeit only on vaccines and not medicines, and the WTO has agreed to debate the waiver.
