Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam America, Amnesty International and other top civil society groups on Wednesday called on US President Joe Biden to reject a potential agreement on COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights in the World Trade Organization.
In a letter, the groups called the proposal a “rehash” of an EU position that was far from the rights exemption Biden supported in May 2021 to speed up vaccines for developing countries.
“This leaked text … would impose new conditions limiting existing WTO rules, which now allow countries to issue compulsory licenses for patented products,” the organizations said.
They noted that India and South Africa, which had been working on the compromise language with the US and the EU, had not yet formally approved the “concept”.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Wednesday told U.S. lawmakers that there was no agreement on what she called the “concept” of a compromise developed during discussions facilitated by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
A text for the proposed compromise, which Reuters saw earlier this month, sought to waive IP rights to COVID-19 vaccines and supplies. It must be completed and accepted by the 164 member states of the WTO. Read more
Some critics argue that the potential deal does not go far enough beyond a mandatory vaccine licensing regime, while others see it as hurting large companies’ IP rights.
The groups called on Biden to redouble its efforts to negotiate an “actual exemption” to increase COVID-19 vaccine production.
European civil society groups have expressed similar concerns in a separate letter to EU officials.
The US groups said the potential deal would add burdensome conditions to WTO rules by requiring the identification of all relevant patents, data that were not readily available.
“If adopted as it stands, this text, while continuing to privilege Big Pharma monopolies and profits, will continue to deny access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to millions around the world,” the groups wrote. .
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