COVID-19 Vaccine Intellectual Property Compromise Praised by WTO Chief

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, current World Trade Organization chief, has expressed optimism to developments in intellectual property deliberations for COVID-19 vaccine technology. South Africa and India have asked for temporary holds on enforcing intellectual property rights of COVID-19 vaccines to allow manufacturers in those countries to produce vaccines themselves instead of waiting for shipments from other countries.

According to Robin Millard of Medical Xpress, “A source close to France’s foreign trade minister Franck Riester said agreement had been struck at a technical level but now needed a green light at the political level. He said the compromise would only apply to developing countries accounting for less than 10 percent of global COVID vaccine exports, excluding China.”

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(Source: Medical Xpress, March 16^th, 2022)