Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has backed a waiver request for all countries to choose to neither grant nor enforce patents and other intellectual property tied to Covid-19 drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other technologies for the duration of the pandemic until global herd immunity is achieved.

India and South Africa had submitted the waiver request to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ahead of the organisation’s TRIPS council’s meeting.

According to MSF, this move is in line with the efforts by governments of nearly 20 years ago, which spearheaded the use of affordable generic HIV/AIDS medicines, and, if approved, could signal a major turning point in countries’ response to the pandemic.

WTO member countries can seek a waiver from certain obligations in WTO treaties under exceptional circumstances.

If members agree on the waiver, countries can choose not to grant or enforce IP (patents, industrial designs, copyright, and trade secrets) related to all Covid-19 medical products and technologies.

‘A global pandemic is no time for business-as-usual, and there is no place for patents or corporate profiteering as long as the world is faced with the threat of Covid-19’, Head of Access Campaign at MSF in South Asia, Leena Menghaney, said.

‘During the pandemic, treatment providers and governments have had to grapple with intellectual property barriers to essential products such as masks, ventilator valves and reagents for test kits.

‘With this bold action, India and South Africa have shown that governments want to be back in the driver’s seat when it comes to ensuring all people can have access to needed Covid-19 medical products, medicines, and vaccines so that more lives can be saved’.

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières

Photo source: Médecins Sans Frontières