For more than three years, developing countries fought against the inequities in the access to medical products, to address the pandemic of COVID-19. As many as 100 countries, led by South Africa and India, sought to challenge existing rules that protect Intellectual Property (IP), in an attempt to boost manufacturing capacities for medical products during COVID-19. This, they did, at the WTO in Geneva, by seeking to temporarily suspend certain provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) – legal rules that govern intellectual property matters. It is a battle these countries lost in June 2022, after first bringing this bold proposal to the WTO in October 2020 that directly sought to challenge the monopolies of big pharmaceutical companies on medical products. Many developed countries are home to the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
Author
My heart-felt thanks to numerous trade negotiators, activists and scholars who have educated me on this journey. Countless health workers, officials, and experts who have worked tirelessly during the pandemic of COVID-19, have inspired this process.The compilation has been produced at the request of some trade negotiators so that it may serve as a handy reference to review these discussions at the WTO during this period.
An eye-opener on global health challenges. A must-read!
An eye-opener on global health challenges. A must-read!
An eye-opener on global health challenges. A must-read!
The protracted, but unsuccessful negotiations show how the WTO failed in addressing the challenges of COVID-19 that resulted in more than 15 million associated deaths due to the pandemic. So while Even though the “TRIPS Waiver” failed to become a trade policy option at the WTO in the context of health emergencies, it has undoubtedly reset the debate on the role of IP in global health. This updated edition is a compilation of nearly 70 stories that chronicle these negotiations between 2020-2024.