India calls for a waiver of WTO agreement related to COVID-19 prevention: Lancet journal

India and South Africa have called for an urgent waiver of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on intellectual property related to COVID-19 prevention, containment, or treatment, stated a prestigious medical journal in its recent issue.

India and South Africa have called for an urgent waiver of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on intellectual property related to COVID-19 prevention, containment, or treatment, stated a prestigious medical journal in its recent issue. The report said: The Lancet COVID-19 Commission supports the emergency waiver of TRIPS in all circumstances that would facilitate the rapid scale-up of production and distribution of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, noting that it is in the interest not only of LMICs but also of the entire world to suppress the pandemic as rapidly as possible."

"Now more than ever the multilateral system must be supported to work effectively to deliver know-how and COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and other vital supplies (eg, personal protective equipment and COVID-19 test kits) to all nations. Multilateral cooperation should include technical training and cooperation, active sharing of best practices, and the full deployment of international policy instruments, including emergency multilateral financing, flexibilities under the WTO-TRIPS agreement, and active cooperation in global institutions, including WHO, the ACT Accelerator, and COVAX," it said. "During the COVID-19 pandemic, the revenues of governments have plummeted at a time when higher government spending is urgently needed. As a result, the need for emergency deficit financing is unprecedented," the journal said.

The medical journal highlighted that if COVAX is provided with more guaranteed funding, it could incentivise expanded production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccine doses for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and assure COVAX's place in the vaccine queue. To achieve meaningful results in 2021, COVAX should have guaranteed funds in 2021 of US$20-40 billion, which it would turn into firm agreements on expanded vaccine production. Moreover, members of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network should be engaged with the efforts of COVAX to produce low-cost vaccines at scale, it said.

The IMF and multilateral development banks (the World Bank and regional development banks) were created for such emergencies. In 2020, the IMF lent about $105*5 billion of emergency financing to 85 countries. Moreover, members of the developing countries vaccine manufacturers network should be engaged with the efforts of COVAX to produce low-cost vaccines at scale. (ANI)

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