The pandemic has tested the resilience of the global community on various fronts such as whether it can unite to ensure the availability of COVID-19 medical products for everyone. In this regard, India and South Africa, in October 2020, gave a clarion call at the World Trade Organization (WTO) demanding that key provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement be temporarily waived. The developed world, especially the European Union (EU), kept dragging its feet on this while the virus raged on. Now, the EU has conceded. A deal has been brokered between the EU, the U.S., India, and South Africa on the issue of the TRIPS waiver. This deal will now be presented to the entire WTO membership to be accepted at the forthcoming ministerial meeting. However, the waiver is a classic case of too little, too late, and represents a significant climb down from the original proposal of India and South Africa.
Waiver weaknesses
First, the draft waiver includes only COVID-19 vaccines and not other COVID-19 medical products. This is a major handicap. Medicines also play an equally important role in combating the pandemic. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended baricitinib for treating severe or critical COVID-19. But according to the Médecins Sans Frontières, the generic version of baricitinib is not available in many countries because it is patented. This defeats the purpose of the TRIPS waiver, which was to ensure cheaper and faster availability of drugs such as baricitinib.
