Universal and equitable access to safe, effective and affordable vaccines, diagnostics and treatments is crucial in the global fight against COVID-19.
International Trade is a competence of the EU under the Treaties and in exercising that competence, the European Commission engages fully with the Member States, including Ireland, through a variety of Committees and Working Parties/Groups, including on Intellectual Property.
The EU proposed an alternative to the TRIPS waiver that relates to the use of the flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement. The proposal is targeted and pragmatic and aims at ensuring that governments can resort to compulsory licences, including to export to countries with no or limited manufacturing capacities, in the most effective manner adapted to the circumstances of a pandemic.
The EU is of the view that there is no single solution and that a multi-pronged approach is needed and that discussions should concentrate on how the Intellectual Property system can contribute towards increasing the manufacturing capacity and the equitable access to vaccines around the world.
In recent months, the EU has participated in the informal discussions on the intellectual property element of the WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic with representatives of South Africa, India and the US, facilitated by the WTO DG.
As a result of these negotiations, a potential draft decision on a proposed solution to the TRIPS waiver was put forward by the WTO Secretariat last week, initially by the group known as the “Quad”, which comprises the EU, the US, India, and South Africa.
Once this potential proposal is presented to the full WTO membership for consideration I will be in a position to report on the relevant details.
What I can say is that the EU has shown flexibility to finding a solution, by clarifying and waiving certain obligations in the TRIPS Agreement which would allow WTO Members’ governments to authorise a company to manufacture and export COVID-19 pharmaceutical products in a fast and simplified manner.
This solution would facilitate production of vaccines, especially in regions such as Africa, while preserving incentives for innovation and investment.
Europe has committed 200 million doses to reach low and middle-income countries by the end of this year, mainly through the COVAX initiative and is investing €1 billion to ramp up mRNA production capacity in Africa.
The Irish Government has to date committed to the donation of €13.5 million and five million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the COVAX facility. Over 1.8 million doses have already been delivered to recipient countries including almost 1.5 million doses delivered to African countries including Uganda, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ghana and Burkina Faso.
The WHO recently stated that it sees a very positive outlook for supply of vaccines for 2022, that this is predicated on the continuation of dose sharing and manufacturers honouring deals brokered under COVAX, and that unequal distribution, rather than supply, could compromise global access to vaccines.
