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TWN
Info Service on Health Issues (Dec22/02) Geneva, 16 Dec (D. Ravi Kanth) — Around 50 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the former head of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have demanded an immediate extension of the World Trade Organization’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement to diagnostics and therapeutics. Writing to the European Union’s Vice-President and trade commissioner, Mr Valdis Dombrovskis, on 14 December, they called “on the European Commission and Council to express their explicit support to an extension of the product scope of the TRIPS Decision to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics, and express the position publicly before the WTO General Council meeting of 19 and 20 December 2022.” The MEPs said that the MC12 TRIPS Decision “largely reiterates existing flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement to allow production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, without significantly altering the global intellectual property regime.” They argued that “the Decision not only fell short of the ambition of the waiver proposed by South Africa and India, and the EP Resolution in November 2021 calling on the EU to support a wide TRIPS waiver, for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, it also restricts its scope to only vaccines, with a six-month deadline to decide whether to extend the decision to therapeutics and diagnostics.” According to the MEPs, “access to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics remains unequal, with a number of low- and middle-income group countries (LMICs) facing a lack of necessary tools for accurate diagnostics and treatments despite voluntary licenses granted by pharmaceutical companies.” Noting the World Health Organization’s reminder on 14 September 2022 that “widespread testing remains key to reduce deaths, reduce onward transmission and track the evolution of the pandemic globally,” the MEPs emphasized that “patent protection on COVID-19 diagnostics have inhibited the expansion of production to LMICs.” More disturbingly, “limited manufacturing capacities, linked to patent-based market exclusivity, hindered the necessary scale-up of production of vaccines” and “this could happen again, especially with therapeutics and last-generation diagnostics,” the MEPs argued. Notwithstanding the EU’s statements to support discussions on product scope covering at least vaccines and therapeutics, including the use of TRIPS flexibilities such as compulsory licensing, the MEPs urged Mr Dombrovskis “to maintain the past positions with the support of a broader product scope of the TRIPS Decision.” More importantly, the MEPs said they believe “a request to support an extension of the decision to therapeutics and diagnostics is justified.” Also, the former OECD Secretary-General, Mr Angel Gurria, in an op-ed published in USA Today, underscored the need for the WTO to act on tests (diagnostics) and treatments (based on therapeutics) immediately. +
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