EU institutions split over Covid-19 vaccine patent waiver proposal by India, South Africa

The proposal mooted by India and South Africa at the WTO TRIPS council for temporarily waiving the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection on the anti-Covid-19 vaccines and drugs has received support from the European Parliament, although the European Commission opposed it.

The European Parliament on Thursday passed an amendment to a resolution – inserting in it a call for “support for proactive, constructive and text-based negotiations for a temporary waiver of the WTO TRIPS agreement, aiming to enhance global access to affordable Covid-19 related medical products and to address global production constraints and supply shortages. The amendment was passed by 355 votes in favour of it and 263 votes against it with 71 abstentions – just a day after the TRIPS Council of the WTO decided to start text-based negotiations on both the proposals – the one presented by India and South Africa as well as the one tabled by the European Union to block it.

The European Parliament comprises 705 members directly elected by the citizens of the 27 member nations of the European Union. It is one of the legislative wings of the bloc, but it cannot make the European Commission – the executive wing of the EU – to change its stand on any issue.

The European Commission has been opposing the proposal presented by India and South Africa on October 2, 2020 and revised on May 21 last. It also came up with a counter-proposal on June 4 last, calling upon governments to “facilitate the use of compulsory licensing” within the framework of the existing Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreements, commonly known as TRIPS agreement.

The proposal, initially moved by India and South Africa and now co-sponsored by at least 60 nations, however, suggested a temporary waiver from implementation, application and enforcement of the Sections 1 (copyrights and related rights), 4 (industrial design), 5 (patents) and 7 (protection of undisclosed information) of the Part II of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights – commonly known as the TRIPS agreement – for prevention, containment and treatment of the Covid-19.

The waiver, according to its proponents, will allow any company anywhere in the world to produce cheaper versions of the equipment required to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as the anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, without the fear of being subjected to legal proceedings for violation of IPR protection. It will thus make it possible to scale up global production of the drugs and vaccines, instead of allowing only a small number of patent holding companies to manufacture and thus control global supply of the medical tools required to contain the pandemic.

The counter-proposal by the European Commission has been denounced not only by the proponents of the TRIPS waiver for anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, but also by the international organizations, like the Medicines Sans Frontier.

“By focusing just on compulsory licensing, the EU is promoting a safeguard that can only bypass patents but not all IP barriers, thereby making it less effective than the proposed waiver,” Dimitri Eynikel, EU Policy Advisor for MSF's Access Campaign, said. “In this raging pandemic, countries need to have all options at their disposal to encourage the manufacturing of COVID-19 medical tools across the world. The EU and other nations opposing this waiver need to stop blocking other countries’ efforts to protect their populations in a public health emergency.”

The European Parliament’s support however sent out a political message in favour of the proposal mooted by India and South Africa for the IPR waiver on the anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines.