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" We call on your government to reject the leaked text prepared by the WTO Secretariat and to continue to seek a meaningful waiver to save lives and control the pandemic all over the world." — Larry Brown, NUPGE President
Ottawa (13 April 2022) — NUPGE is urging the government of Canada to reject a new proposal regarding the TRIPS waiver, recently leaked by the media.
Letter to federal government
Brown sent a letter to Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, and copied Prime Minister Trudeau, and leaders of the opposition parties. In it, Brown calls on the government to reject the recently leaked text and "come back to the original intention and vision contained in the TRIPS Waiver proposal made by India and South Africa."
5 million people have died
Brown reminded the Minister that "in the 17 months after India and South Africa presented the TRIPS Waiver proposal, almost 5 million people have died. More than 3 million people died after the first vaccines started to get to the arms of people living in high-income countries." Citing an article in the Lancet, Brown added that "the actual death toll is expected to be 3 times higher."
Global vaccine apartheid
Brown also called out the government on the practice of global vaccine apartheid. "Currently, high-income countries have started to plan the fourth vaccine dose to the most vulnerable populations," Brown noted. "In those same countries, the COVID-19 therapeutics now recommended by WHO are available to patients. This is not the case in many developing countries."
Monopolies related to intellectual property rights have allowed the big pharmaceutical corporations to prevent local manufacturers in developing countries to produce and sell lifesaving health technologies. As a result of the grotesque global inequality, several countries, led by India and South Africa, proposed that the WTO temporarily suspend intellectual property rules to allow the Global South to share vaccine technologies and therapeutics.
Text leaked by the media
On March 15, 2022, a text was leaked by the media, with a misleading claim that it represented a compromise by the QUAD (India, South Africa, the US and the EU) of discussions facilitated by the WTO Secretariat. It is now clear that there has not been agreement on this text by the Quad. The text has been drafted by the WTO Secretariat and only brings together the worst of the EU and US positions. It bears no resemblance to the TRIPS Waiver proposed by India and South Africa. It does not deliver a meaningful outcome that will expand and diversify production and promote access.
A step backwards
In fact, the contents of the text cannot even be considered IP Waivers. It does not provide any freedom to operate or a simplified pathway for generic manufacturers, as the original TRIPS Waiver proposal intended. Instead, the leaked text adds additional obligations to existing flexibilities, creating further barriers to the entry of local manufacturers and more affordable products.
"It represents a step backwards from WTO’s status quo of imposing intellectual property barriers and barriers to access," Larry Brown explained.
Prominent personalities such as Ban Ki Moon, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and Prof. Jayati Ghosh have strongly urged India and South Africa to reject the proposed leaked text. Former secretary-general of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon termed it as "half-measures" that “is barely a waiver at all, with elements of the intellectual property agreement actively reinforced,” calling on India and South Africa to reject it.
What's a meaningful compromise?
A meaningful TRIPS Waiver must be a legally binding text that (a) covers vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics; (b) does not contain eligibility criteria, limiting the countries that can use it (c) applies to all relevant intellectual property obligations in particular patents and trade secrets; and (d) practically expands the policy space of government and freedom to operate of manufacturers at the national level to access technology and expand production.
Because the leaked text falls short of all these criteria, Brown urged the government to reject it. "We call on your government to reject the leaked text prepared by the WTO Secretariat and to continue to seek a meaningful waiver to save lives and control the pandemic all over the world," said Brown.