Patently Fair

Context: US’s proposal for a liberal IPR regime on Covid vaccines is welcome. EU must shed its intransigence.

Background: While the US has pushed forward for a liberal IPR regime for relaxing the patents over Covid vaccines, the EU seems to be hesitant in doing so.

Push towards a liberal IPR

• EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen and Merkel had endorsed the idea of “vaccine as a public good” at the starting of the crisis.
• In October last year, India and South Africa suggested relaxing the TRIPS regime to enable Third World countries to scale up the production of vaccines.
• Recently the Biden administration’s pled for intellectual property rights flexibility on Covid vaccines.
  • The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines.
  • Articles IX.3 and IX.4 of the WTO agreement mention “exceptional circumstances” when patents can be waived.

Implication of relaxing IPR rules

• Relaxing IPR rules could allow companies in developing countries to manufacture vaccines without fear of lawsuits from firms that developed them.
• Keeping a check on mutation: Mutants will continue to develop as long as the virus circulates in densely populated countries — most of them in the developed world.
  • Thus, the salience of allowing multiple players to start vaccine production under rigorous regulatory monitoring cannot be overstated.

Challenges in relaxation of IPR rules

• Mis-targeted: The EU believes that the limiting factor in vaccine manufacturing is production capacity and high-quality standards, not patents.
  • Thus, such measures will not ipso facto lead to an increase in production capacities.
• Concerns about counterfeit vaccines also deserve serious attention.

Conclusion: All the nations, including the EU, must adage to the fact that “no one is safe till everyone is safe”. That should nudge them to open more spaces for vaccine collaboration.