WTO to intensify talks on easing access to COVID-19 vaccines

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World Trade Organization member nations agreed Wednesday to intensify talks geared at improving access to เกมส์สล็อต COVID-19 products, as developing nations push for a proposal to ease patents and other intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines and some wealthier countries remain stiffly opposed.

A WTO panel focusing on intellectual property, which includes patents on technological know-how like vaccines and the processes to manufacture them, wrapped up a two-day meeting on Wednesday with an agreement to start a “text-based process” for pulling together proposals. to improve the fight against COVID-19 through the Geneva-based trade body's intricate system of rules.

The goal is to help jump-start lagging efforts to get vaccines to developing-world countries that badly need them, according to a Geneva-based trade official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

New, informal talks will start next week among members of the panel, with an eye toward pulling together a report for a July 21-22 meeting of WTO ambassadors.

South Africa and India floated a proposal in the fall for a temporary easing of patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines, therapies and tests – known as an “IP waiver, While many developed countries with strong pharmaceutical industries hesitated or were outright opposed to the idea. , the debate received a jolt last month when the Biden administration announced support for granting IP waivers for just vaccines.

Since Washington's change of stance, a number of other Western countries have softened their opposition to the the waivers, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, the trade official said, relaying information from deliberations in the closed-door WTO talks held. Tuesday and Wednesday.

Those countries, as well as China, haven't rallied fully behind the South African and Indian proposal, and view it as only part of what they think should be a more comprehensive approach to getting COVID-19 products to the developing world, the official. said. Some countries, such as the European Union's 27 members, Britain, Switzerland and Korea, continue to oppose waivers as a tool in the pandemic.

In the two days of talks, South Africa and India presented a recent revision of their proposal – now backed by over 60 countries – that stressed a temporary, three-year waiver for COVID-19 products, the official said.

Pharmaceutical companies insist that an IP waiver could dampen the incentive for researchers and entrepreneurs to innovate, and say vaccine-sharing by rich countries would be a much faster way to get shots to health workers and at-risk populations in the developing world.

Even optimistic supporters acknowledge an IP waiver could take months to finalize because of the resistance from some countries. WTO rules require consensus on such decisions, meaning a single country among the trade body's 164 members could scuttle any proposal. Even if a plan were adopted, ratification would also take time.