India supported TRIPS waiver for benefit of developing nations: Goyal

The deal on intellectual property waiver, which was agreed upon by 164 member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) last week, will help developing countries manufacture patented Covid-19 vaccines, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

“Many developing nations were suffering as they did not have enough vaccines or technology. At the WTO we have agreed on certain concessions which will help them set up vaccine-manufacturing facilities related to Covid-19 with help from companies that have the technology,” Goyal said at a media briefing on the outcomes of the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference, which concluded in Geneva last week.

According to the minister, India has a number of Covid vaccines and can help other developing countries to make vaccines.

WTO member nations last week agreed to grant temporary patent waiver for manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines for five years to enable vaccine equity, accessibility, and affordability. According to the agreement, a country will be able to issue a compulsory licence to its domestic pharma companies to make the vaccine without taking approval from the original maker. There will be no limit on export.

A decision to include diagnostics and therapeutics under the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement will be taken in six months.

In October 2020, India, South Africa, and 63 co-sponsors had made the waiver proposal to help middle- and low-income nations get access to Covid-19 vaccines and drugs.

However, the discussions reached a deadlock at the TRIPS Council. The final agreement fell short of the original proposal.

“We have sufficient types of vaccines ... So for the current strains of Covid-19, we do not need this TRIPS waiver. We have supported it more for the other developing countries to manufacture vaccines,” Goyal said.

“In the future, when diagnostics and therapeutics come in (under the patent waiver purview) ... we can use this TRIPS waiver to start manufacturing it with their (foreign company having patent) technologies in India,” the minister said.

The members of the WTO forged deals with convergence on key issues – subsidies on fisheries, waiver of certain requirements concerning compulsory licensing for Covid-19 vaccines, food safety, and agriculture, as well as WTO reform.

As far as other outcomes are concerned, the conference saw decisions on all items except getting a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding for food security, which India was expecting. The matter will be taken up at the next conference.