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A year on, proposal to waive IP for Covid-19 vaccines is still in limbo
- Plan submitted to WTO would allow countries to use existing intellectual property to make vaccines and other medical products during pandemic
- It has the support of more than 100 nations, including China, but a handful of opponents again blocked its path at a meeting on Monday
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A year after a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines was put forward its future remains unclear, with a handful of nations again blocking its path at a World Trade Organization meeting on Monday.
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India and South Africa submitted the plan last October in a bid to allow countries to use existing intellectual property to manufacture vaccines and other Covid-19 medical products during the pandemic. The proposal has since won the backing of more than 100 nations, including major Covid-19 vaccine producer China.
But circular conversation and staunch European opponents have stymied the plan, leaving countries frustrated and the proposal in limbo ahead of a major WTO meeting next month, according to a Geneva-based trade official.
“What can we do in practical terms to move forward?” said Dagfinn Sorli, Norway’s ambassador to the WTO and chair of the council debating the plan on Monday. “We already know members’ positions, but where do we go from here?”
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The latest talks come as the World Health Organization and other health experts have repeatedly warned of the dire consequences of uneven global Covid-19 vaccinations, and with the WHO’s goal for every country to vaccinate 40 per cent of its population by year’s end still far off the mark.
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