WTO fails to reach agreement on providing global access to Covid treatments

The World Trade Organization has failed to reach an agreement to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 tests and treatments for poorer countries.

This was said by members of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Council it could not reach consensus after years of discussion, despite “considerable efforts” by members.

Campaigners called the news a “slap in the face”.

Research published last year found that more than 50% of Covid deaths are in low- and middle-income countries could have been prevented if people had the same access to vaccines as wealthy states. According to data published by the World Health Organization in January 2023, 75% of people in high-income countries have been vaccinated, compared to less than 25% in low-income countries.

“It is clear that for the governments of the rich countries, protecting the monopoly profits of pharmaceutical companies was more important than saving lives in the global south,” said Mohga Kamal-Yanni, co-policy leader of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, an organization who advocates for equitable access to medicines around the world.

“For four years, WTO member states took no meaningful action to respond to Covid-19, and now it appears the WTO has given up altogether,” she added.

In October 2020, India and South Africa jointly called on the WTO temporarily suspends patents and other intellectual property rights to all existing and future Covid vaccines, diagnostics and treatments. The call was supported by over 60 developing countries, who said the move would guarantee fair global access to medicines and prevent rich countries from doing so hoarding resources.

However, the proposal was challenged strong resistance from pharmaceutical companies and many high-income countries, who said the move would stifle innovation.

In June 2022 a significant one watered down version of the proposal agreed to lift some restrictions on vaccine exports.

Campaigners have lobbied the WTO to extend the waiver, but Tuesday’s decision means there will be no further concessions on current or future tests or treatments, including those for long Covid.

“It’s a real slap in the face,” said Fatima Hassan, a South African human rights lawyer and founder of Health Justice Initiative.

Hassan, who addressed WTO member states last year in a “last ditch effort” to win concessions, said “no one in their right mind thought this proposal would be blocked” when it was first proposed in 2020. “The whole world was in crisis. We’ve had all the speeches about solidarity. We did not expect such opposition to a very simple proposal,” she said.

“It is proof of what we have said all along: that the WTO does not serve the interests of patients in the global south because it is being hijacked by high-income countries. This decision is a sign of whose life matters most.

“Global South governments will urgently need to reconsider what it means to be part of this bizarre one-sided system.”