In view of the global health crisis and the need to combat the Covid 19 pandemic, India and South Africa proposed in WTO on 2nd Oct, 2020 a relaxation in the norms of the agreement on TRIPS, to ensure quick and affordable access to vaccines and medicines for developing countries.  As a result of proactive outreach by India and other like-minded countries, the proposal has received the support of more than 120 countries.

During his recent phone call on 26 April 2021 with the US President Biden, Prime Minister informed him about India’s initiative at the WTO which was aimed at the benefit of humanity.

We welcome the statement of the US government of 5th May announcing their support for this initiative. We are hopeful that with a consensus based approach, the waiver can be approved quickly at the WTO. The waiver is an important step for enabling rapid scaling up of manufacture and timely availability of affordable Covid 19 vaccines and essential medical products.

TRIPS waiver support to enable IP flexibility and rapid scale-up of vaccine manufacturing for global public health access. Support for a temporary TRIPS waiver is advanced to relax certain intellectual property obligations at the WTO, enabling rapid scaling up of manufacturing, technology diffusion, and broader access to Covid 19 vaccines and essential medical products in developing countries; the proposal seeks consensus-based approval to remove barriers to production and distribution during the public health emergency.