The governments of India and South-Africa backed by about 100 countries and counting are calling for a waiver on patents over COVID-19 related medicines and equipment. Headquarter countries of Big Pharma are opposing it. The debate is going on at the WTO and will be decided soon. Transcript LYNN FRI

The governments of India and South-Africa backed by about 100 countries and counting are calling for a waiver on patents over COVID-19 related medicines and equipment. Headquarter countries of Big Pharma are opposing it. The debate is going on at the WTO and will be decided soon.

Transcript

LYNN FRIES: As reported by MSF/Médicines Sans Frontières or Doctors Without Borders: “Monopolies are often an obstacle between people and the lifesaving health tools they need. [Intellectual property like]patents and other exclusivities limit supply and keep prices high. In this unprecedented global emergency, governments have taken an incredibly strong stance at the World Trade Organization (WTO), proposing to allow countries to temporarily waive the obligations of enforcing patents, trade secrets, and other types of intellectual property (IP) during the COVID 19 pandemic so that everyone everywhere has access to lifesaving treatments, vaccines, tests and medical tools needed to beat back this pandemic.”

MSF reports 99 of the WTO’s 164 Member States currently back the proposal and MSF calls on all governments to support the WTO waiver in forthcoming deliberations.

Case studies developed by Médicines Sans Frontières with Third World Network show IP obstacles impact access to essential medical products that go way beyond patents on vaccines and pose a barrier to COVID-19 technologies in both developed and developing countries.

SANGEETA SHASHIKANT, Legal Adviser to Third World Network: Diagnostic testing is critical when we are looking to contain the spread of COVID-19. And globally there have been shortages of testing materials. So in the Netherlands, there was a shortage of testing materials because often the diagnostic infrastructure, the testing or the diagnostic, is dependent on proprietary materials. And in the case of Netherlands early on  they were unable to ramp up the testing because Roche was unable to supply the relevant materials. And they refused initially to disclose the recipe for the testing material until there was public pressure and the European commission considered investigating the behavior of Roche. So this shows that the business as usual approaches of pharma companies is hindering access.

And another case in Italy, early on in the pandemic, an Italian hospital ran out of ventilator valves. And their regular supplier was unable to provide those valves. So two local engineers reverse engineered and 3D printed the valves. So the original price of the original valves was 11,000 Euros but the 3D printed valves were as low as $1. And they supplied the Italian hospitals. And the original manufacturer, it was reported that they refused to share the blueprints. It is also reported that the local engineers were unable to scale up to do more 3D printing because of potential legal issues arising from intellectual property rights.

In the US as well, the Governor of Kentucky urged 3M, the holder of the pattern for masks/ N95 masks to release its patent because 3M was unable to provide sufficient supplies. And the Governor of Kentucky was reported asking 3M that if you were to release the patterns there could be a manufacturing done by other manufacturers as well. But that has not happened. So there is a shortage there as well of N95 masks.

A major issue is a lot of the R&D [Research and Development] right now is being driven by public investment and there are no strings attached...