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Vaccine patent waiver not a panacea
We need to find measures that preserve the incentive to innovate and invest in health research.
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(AFP/epost-robot)
I
n reply to The Jakarta Post editorial on March 19 in favor of waiving the World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines, I concur that the richest countries in the world need to help speed up the supply of vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.
That is not only a moral duty, but a medical necessity: “No one is safe until everyone is safe”, said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Yet, specifically on the intellectual property waiver under discussion at the WTO right now, allow me to quote WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, “There should be a ‘third way’ to broaden access through facilitating technology transfer within the framework of multilateral rules, so as to encourage research and innovation while at the same time allowing licensing agreements that help scale up manufacturing of medical products.”
Indeed, the problems of access to vaccines will not be solved by waiving patents; rather, they are related to the lack of sufficient manufacturing capacity to produce the required quantities fast.
We need to find measures that preserve the incentive to innovate and invest in health research, while disseminating the technology and know-how through collaboration between vaccine developers and producers.
In case of problems with or a refusal by companies to enter into voluntary licenses, the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement provides for the possibility to grant compulsory licenses, i.e. licenses granted by governments without the patent owner’s consent. This includes the possibility of granting fast-track licenses, where no negotiations with the patent holder are required, for export to countries with no or insufficient manufacturing capacity.
Collaboration and licensing on a global level is already happening but it needs to be scaled up. Intellectual property protection is a key factor in providing a clear legal framework that enables this collaboration.
Universal and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments is a priority for the EU, including in low- and middle-income countries that have no production capacity or more limited financial resources. The EU and its member states (“Team Europe”) are contributing 2.2 billion euro (US$2.6 billion) to the COVAX facility aiming to deliver 1.3 billion doses to 92 low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2021. Indonesia is one of the beneficiary countries.
Besides our COVAX funding, Team Europe mobilized 38.5 billion euro for fighting COVID globally. Within this amount, the funding for Indonesia is 200 million euro, of which 20 million euro in grants and 180 million euro in loans from the development banks of France and Germany.
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The writer is EU ambassador to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam.
