After intense negotiations between its 164 members, the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached an agreement on Friday, June 17, which notably concerns the lifting for 5 years of patents on anti-Covid vaccines for developing countries. .
“ Within the World Trade Organization, decisions are made by consensus. This means that one country can, on its own, defeat an agreement. So we thought about what would be the minimum proposals that we could accept in order to move forward, even if that means that there are points that will have to be reworked afterwards. “, declares the South African Minister of Commerce Ebrahim Patel at the microphone of our correspondent in Johannesburg, Claire Bargeles.
The file was submitted in October 2020 by South Africa and India, but the final text is more timid than the initial proposal. A disappointment for several associations, such as Médecins sans Frontières, which hoped in particular for a longer lift and the inclusion of treatments and screening tests. But Ebrahim Patel maintains this is a big step forward.
” This agreement aims to allow local factories to produce vaccines or the ingredients necessary for their manufacture, without the agreement of the patent holders, and then to be able to export these vaccines, up to 100% of them. , to other developing countries. »
Fight the “ vaccine apartheid »
Since the start of the pandemic, South Africa and India have repeatedly denounced inequalities in access to precious doses, in what has been dubbed a “ vaccine apartheid “. According to the WHO, 60% of the world’s population has received two doses, but the situation is still inequitable with only 17% vaccinated in Libya, 8% in Nigeria or even less than 5% in Cameroon.
The agreement, which allows local manufacturers to produce vaccines or components without authorization from the patent holders, is limited to five years and excludes for the moment tests and expensive therapeutic treatments against Covid-19. While welcoming this step forward “, the South African government also declared in a press release that “ other partnerships will be necessary, particularly with regard to access to know-how and technologies “.
► Listen again Today the economy: The battle for the lifting of patents on vaccines rages at the WTO
” The agreement also indicates that, within six months, countries will have to decide whether or not this agreement can be extended to treatment and screening tests. So this battle is not over, continues the South African Minister of Commerce. But in those early negotiations, our main goal was the lifting of patents for vaccines.. »
South Africa currently has three vaccine production sites with Aspen, the biotechnology company Afrigen in Cape Town which manufactured the first messenger RNA vaccine against Covid-19, and Biovac which assembles the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
(and with AFP)