Covid vaccine patent waiver at WTO hailed in South Africa
India Today
South Africa has hailed the agreement at the WTO that developing countries can start producing their own Covid vaccines. The measure was first proposed by India and South Africa and a number of developing countries have supported it.
The South African government, local vaccine manufacturers and the organised labour sector have welcomed the agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that developing countries can start producing their own vaccines without permission from the patent holders.
South Africa and India first proposed the measures at the WTO, with support from a number of other developing countries.
The discussions at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva were triggered by a joint proposal by South Africa and India in October 2020 for a time-bound and specific waiver of certain provisions of the Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS) administered by the WTO, to allow manufacturers in developing countries to produce vaccines without the patent holder's consent.
The agreement came after a week of concerted efforts by the movers of the motion, with some developed countries and pharmaceutical companies initially opposing the wording of the waiver agreement.
Talks were extended by a day to finalise the agreement, which was concluded on Friday.
“The waiver is one element of a wider set of actions to build both innovation and production capability in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent,” said Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel.
“South Africa has four vaccine initiatives underway. Our focus now is to ensure that we address the demand by persuading global procurers for vaccines to source from African producers.
