Five Reasons the TRIPS Waiver Should not be Expanded to Covid Therapeutics
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
This policy brief explains why it would be misguided and counterproductive to expand the World Trade Organization’s “Covid” waiver of the obligation to enforce patents on vaccines to also cover Covid therapeutics and diagnostics. We provide five reasons why WTO members should not expand the waiver. The waiver to the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of IP (TRIPS Agreement), agreed by WTO members in June 2022, currently allows low- and middle-income countries to temporarily waive protections on Covid vaccine patents to allow members to produce the shots for use domestically or shipment abroad. The WTO is now considering whether to expand the Covid waiver to therapeutics and tests, a decision due by December 2022. Expanding the waiver would be a mistake, as it would: 1. Derail current successful voluntary efforts to expand access to Covid treatments; 2. Fail to address the challenges of health systems and other institutions that are undermining access to existing treatments; 3. Jeopardise innovation incentives for diseases unrelated to Covid; 4. Enable certain WTO members to gain industrial advantage at the expense of other countries; and 5. Destroy incentives to develop new treatments for Covid-19 and indeed future pandemics.
Publication Title
Geneva Network
Recommended Citation
Schultz, Mark F. and Stevens, Philip, "Five Reasons the TRIPS Waiver Should not be Expanded to Covid Therapeutics" (2022). Akron Law Faculty Publications. 264.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/ua_law_publications/264
