Won’t back patent waivers for tests & treatments: US
WASHINGTON: The US won’t agree to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid-19 treatments and tests this year -aligning with developed-nation peers and delaying prospects for a World Trade Organization accord aimed at boosting global access to life-saving medicines.
On Tuesday, US trade representative Katherine Tai said the agency needs more information about the market dynamics for Covid diagnostics and therapeutics, and plans to ask the US International Trade Commission to launch an investigation into the matter.
“Real questions remain on a range of issues, and the additional time, coupled with information from the USITC, will help the world make a more informed decision,” Tai said in a release.
Such investigations can take nine months to a year to complete. That means further delay for a deal that aims to water down patent rights for antiviral medications like Pfizer’s Paxlovid, Merck & Co’s Molnupiravir, Gilead Sciences’s Remdesivir and Eli Lilly & Co’s Baricitinib.
The debate over waiving IP rights for Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics has simmered since this summer, when WTO members approved a five-year decision that authorized the use of vaccine patent secrets without the right-holder’s consent.
Developing nations such as India, South Africa and Indonesia are pushing to extend the waiver to cover the production and supply of Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. WTO negotiators left the door open to amend the existing waiver by December 17 -- a deadline that will now be missed.
The WTO operates on the basis of consensus, which means any agreement must have the support of each of the organization’s 164 members.
The US surprised negotiators a year and a half ago, when it backed an agreement to water down key provisions of the WTO agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual-property rights for vaccines, known by the acronym Trips. Since then, the US consistently opposed any effort to expand the waiver’s coverage to tests and treatments.
Britain’s health regulator backs vaccine for infants
Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Tuesday authorised a Covid vaccine - made by Pfizer and Biontech - for infants as young as six months, opening the door for vaccinating the country’s youngest children once the UK’S Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) agrees.