India risks being left out of TRIPS waiver

News: India, with South Africa, proposed to waive key provisions of the TRIPS agreement on Covid-19 vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, and related technologies. Developed countries attempt at limiting the waiver to vaccines alone, leaving out diagnostics and therapeutics and excluding India.

What are Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)? 

What are the shortcomings that impacted India’s global campaign?

First, during the pandemic, India rarely made use of the existing flexibilities under the Indian Patent Act, such as compulsory licenses (CL). These flexibilities are consistent with the TRIPS agreement, to increase the supply of Covid-19 medical products, despite being pushed by the judiciary.

On the contrary, during the second Covid wave, the government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the main constraint in boosting the production of key drugs is the unavailability of raw materials, not IP-related legal hurdles. This stand completely contradicted India’s argument internationally that views IP as an obstacle to augmenting the supply of Covid-19 medical products.

Second, TRIPS waiver at the WTO is only an enabling framework. Member countries need to amend their domestic IP laws to implement the waiver. Although, India leads the TRIPS waiver battle internationally, it did not develop a national strategy to implement the TRIPS waiver as and when it is adopted.

Third, the government failed to get the Indian pharmaceutical industry on board. Many Indian pharmaceutical bodies are not in the favor of the waiver, thus denting India’s global campaign.

Fourth, India has successfully developed a fully indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin. Although India signed the technology transfer agreements with domestic companies, it should make the vaccine technology available to anyone interested globally, at a minimal price. This would strengthen India’s position on the TRIPS waiver and also inspire develop countries to do the same.

Source: This post is based on the article “India risks being left out of TRIPS waiver” published in the Indian Express on 23rd February 2022.