India and South Africa have submitted a proposal for waiver from certain provisions of the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement for the prevention, treatment and containment of COVID-19, to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) TRIPS Council on 2nd October 2020. The objective of the proposal is to ensure that the intellectual property rights do not create a hurdle in rapid scaling up of manufacturing capacities throughout the globe to meet the objective of equitable, timely and affordable access for all to vaccines, therapeutics and other goods required to deal with  the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the submission to the TRIPS Council in October 2020, the waiver proposal has now been co-sponsored by 57 WTO members with many members supporting from the floor. The waiver proposal has also received support from the civil society groups and the World Health Organisation.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

TRIPS waiver seeks to remove intellectual property barriers to scale up COVID-19 medical production and ensure equitable access The proposal seeks a waiver of specified TRIPS Agreement provisions to ensure intellectual property rights do not obstruct rapid scaling of manufacturing for COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and related goods, enabling equitable, timely and affordable access; it has been co-sponsored by numerous members and received civil society and international health support, as reported to the legislature.