The US government’s decision to support a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines is a step in the right direction but will not be enough to curb the health crisis, an international civil society group warned at the weekend.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a medical humanitarian organisation, said the temporary waiver referred to preventive Covid-19 vaccines only, yet developing countries including SA and India have been calling for the exclusion to cover a host of medical tools needed to tackle Covid-19, including diagnostics [such as laboratory test kits] and treatments.
In a surprise move last week, the US government announced that it would support waiving some patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, which could ramp up production and help poorer countries to get more doses. The move, which has since been backed by New Zealand and France among other countries, drew cheers from activists, and complaints from Big Pharma as their share prices tumbled. Some critics also argued that donations of doses should be prioritised instead amid concerns that drugmakers in poorer nations are not equipped to make Covid-19 vaccines.
In a webinar on Friday, MSF policy co-coordinator Yuan Qiong Hu said the US’s support for the waiver was narrow, focusing only on preventive Covid-19 vaccines.
Hu said an updated document for the waiver will be presented at the World Trade Organization (WTO) later in May.
MSF has previously said if increasing the number of global suppliers of medical tools is not prioritised, people in poorer countries will remain in a disproportionately disadvantageous position for access.
Health Justice Initiative founder Fatima Hassan urged parties at the WTO to fast-track the text-based negotiations that would bring the waiver into effect. Hassan said negotiations need to be transparent and civil society organisations should be part of the process.
SA and India, which now has the world’s fastest-growing caseload, have led a group of low- and middle-income countries that have for months been urging the suspension of the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (Trips) on Covid-19 vaccines, to expand the number of companies that can manufacture the products beyond patent holders and their licensees.
Their proposal has been backed by the AU and health activists but has until now been fiercely opposed by wealthier nations with strong domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing industries. They have argued that suspending patents would discourage innovation.
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines will ensure production is ramped up across many countries and it [US backing] “fits in with what we have been saying — that vaccines should be seen as a public good”.
With Tamar Kahn
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