The World Trade Organization has failed to reach an agreement to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 tests and treatments for poorer countries.
Members of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) council said it could not reach consensus after years of discussion, despite the “considerable efforts” of members.
Campaigners said the news was a “slap in the face”.
Research published last year found that more than 50% of Covid deaths in low and middle-income countries could have been avoided 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 living in high-income countries have been vaccinated compared with fewer than 25% in low-income states.
“Clearly, to the governments of rich countries, protecting the monopoly profits of pharmaceutical companies was more important than saving lives in the global south,” said Mohga Kamal-Yanni, the policy co-lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, an organisation advocating for equitable medicine access across the world.
“For four years, WTO member states have failed to take any meaningful action to respond to Covid-19, and now it looks like the WTO has given up altogether,” she added.
In October 2020, India and South Africa jointly called on the WTO to temporarily suspend patents and other intellectual property rights on all existing and future Covid vaccines, diagnostics and treatments. The call was supported by more than 60 developing countries, who said the move would ensure equitable global access to medication and prevent wealthy countries from hoarding resources.
However, the proposal faced strong resistance from pharmaceutical companies and many high-income countries, who said the move would stifle innovation.
In June 2022, a significantly watered-down version of the proposal was agreed that lifted some restrictions on exporting vaccines.
Campaigners have been lobbying the WTO to extend the waiver, but Tuesday’s decision means there will be no further concessions made 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 the founder of Health Justice Initiative.
Hassan, who last year addressed WTO member states in a “last ditch attempt” to win concessions, said “nobody in their right mind imagined that this proposal would be blocked” when it was first proposed in 2020. “The entire world was in crisis. We had all the speeches about solidarity. We didn’t expect such opposition to a very simple proposal,” she said.
“It’s proof of what we have been saying all along, that the WTO does not serve the interest of patients in the global south because it is hijacked by high-income countries. This decision is a sign of whose lives are seen to matter the most.
“Global south governments are going to have to urgently reconsider what it means to be part of this bizarre one-sided system.”