Independent panel recommends voluntary licensing and tech transfer for producing COVID-19 vaccines

In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted a proposal suggesting a waiver for all WTO members on the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19.

The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS came into effect in January 1995. It is a multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP) rights such as copyright, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets.

A panel of independent experts who reviewed the response of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to the coronavirus pandemic said the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the WHO should convene major vaccine-producing countries and manufacturers to agree to voluntary licensing and technology transfer for COVID-19 vaccines.

If actions do not occur within three months, a waiver of intellectual property rights under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights should come into force immediately, the panel led by ex-Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, said.

High income countries with a vaccine pipeline for adequate coverage should, alongside their own scale up, commit to provide to the 92 low- and middle income countries of the COVAX Gavi Advance Market Commitment at least one billion vaccine doses no later than September 1, 2021 and more than two billion doses by mid-2022, the 13-member panel which also included Preeti Sudan, India's former secretary of health, and former Vice Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, recommended.

The report also noted that institutions like India’s Serum Institute, Sinopharm in China and Gamaleya Research in Russia may be key in growing the number of vaccine-making facilities in the world. The report came on the same day when the WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the global trade body was waiting for member countries to sit across the table and negotiate an outcome on the issues of technology transfer and the proposal of India and South Africa for temporary waiver of certain provisions from TRIPS agreement to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The director-general of the WTO said the pronouncement by the US about the waiver and also by New Zealand and the willingness of European Union (EU) to come to the table, gives a fillip to the effort to try to bring countries to table and talk.

In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted a proposal suggesting a waiver for all WTO members on the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19.

On technology transfer andand IP waiver issue, ''we are waiting for our members to come to the table and negotiate a good outcome'', she said at WEF's Global Trade Outlook session.

However, she added that the proposed TRIPS agreement waiver was just one aspect of making COVID-19 vaccine access equitable.

The other aspects on which countries have to look include export and import restrictions and prohibitions as it inhibits the supply chain; and increasing production by using sites which are not used now.

So far, she said countries are just reading statements in a formal setting of TRIPS council and they have not sat across the table.

''So, hopefully, we would do that and we would come out with a pragmatic arrangement that is satisfactory to all members... So, these three aspects are needed for us to really get vaccines to people,'' Okonjo-Iweala said, expressing hope that members will start talks quickly.