The issue of patents on Covid-19 vaccines may be on the way to being resolved. After a year and a half of discussions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is taking a step forward towards the lifting of intellectual property rights. The compromise, supported by the European Union, the United States, India and South Africa, could make it possible to release the production of RNA vaccines everywhere on the planet. And to put an end, once and for all, to vaccine inequality. But everything still remains to be done.
With our correspondent in Geneva, Jeremiah Lance
According to Reuters, the text would offer states the ability to produce vaccines against Covid-19, like those from Pfizer and Moderna, without having to pay for patentsfor a period of three to five years.
The device would only concern vaccines and not treatments, to the chagrin of NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, which campaign for a total lifting of intellectual property rights. Also excludes countries like China, which account for more than 10% of Covid-19 vaccine exports worldwide.
It is despite everything a crucial step forward according to WTO Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as negotiations had been stalling for more than a year. However, there is a problem: at the WTO, decisions are taken by consensus. This means that all members must support the text. And this is not the case, for the moment, of countries like Great Britain and Switzerland. Countries where many pharmaceutical companies are based opposed to any modification of the current system.