- The proposal of India and South Africa on providing temporary patent waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic has achieved tremendous mileage and progression as the WTO member countries have agreed to commence text-based negotiations on it.
- Text-based negotiations are the way forward and it means that the members have broadly and in principle accepted the objective behind the waiver proposal said Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan
- The first proposal suggesting a waiver for all WTO members on the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement with the prevention, containment, or treatment of COVID-19 was given in October 2020, by India and Africa.
- In May this year, a revised proposal was submitted by 62 co-sponsors, including India, South Africa, and Indonesia. The revised text has also proposed waiver for health products and technologies as the prevention, treatment, or containment of COVID-19 which involves a range of things and “intellectual property issues may arise concerning the products and technologies, their materials or components, as well as their methods and means of manufacture.
Source –