The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said she hopes that by December the body’s members will have reached a “pragmatic” solution over whether to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents, reports Reuters.
Okonjo-Iweala said she saw “movement on both sides” — referring to proponents of a waiver and those who have objections — and was hopeful of a framework agreement on the waiver issue, technological transfers and better access to vaccines for developing countries. December is “an outer limit” for such a deal, the WTO director-general said at a briefing with journalists during a visit to Italy, which this year chairs the Group of 20 nations.
US President Joe Biden last week backed a call from India and South Africa to waive patent protection for COVID-19 vaccines, angering pharmaceutical companies and triggering opposition from several European countries. Experts say waivers could take years to negotiate, and would not deal with the immediate need to manufacture more doses fast.
Okonjo-Iweala said she understood proponents of the waiver were preparing a revised proposal which she hoped would be presented to the WTO “as soon as possible” so that by the end of May all sides are sitting down to negotiate. It was possible that those with doubts about the waiver were also preparing texts, she said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that if wealthy nations hogged Covid-19 shots while millions in poor countries died waiting for them it would amount to “vaccine apartheid”. Ramaphosa called on South Africans to support the waiver in his weekly newsletter, saying vaccines should be “a global public good”.