Countries urge broader Covid patent waivers

Dozens of countries have revised a proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for patent waivers for medical tools needed to combat Covid, insisting it must be broader than just vaccines, nongovernmental organisations said on Saturday.

More than 60 countries have presented a revision of their text before the WTO on ditching intellectual property protections for Covid-19 jabs and other medical tools while the pandemic rages, according to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity and NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).

KEI published what it said was the revised text, which pushed for the waiver to be broad and long-lasting.

The WTO did not immediately verify the authenticity of the document, but a western diplomat close to the waiver discussions confirmed it was genuine and had been distributed to all WTO members.

That text said the waiver should cover all medical “prevention, treatment and containment” tools needed to battle Covid. In addition to vaccines, it should include treatments, diagnostics, vaccines, medical devices and protective equipment, along with the material and components needed to produce them, it said.

It also said the waiver should last for “at least three years” from the date it takes effect, following which, the WTO’s general council should determine whether it could be lifted or should be prolonged.

Latin America and the Caribbean passed one million coronavirus deaths on Friday with over 1,001,400 fatalities - almost 30% of the global total - and more than 31.5 million cases.