European Union invites Brazil to make alternative proposal to breaking vaccine patents

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  Faced with the international impasse over the Covid-19 vaccine patents, the European Union has informally sounded out the Brazilian government to form a group at the WTO (World Trade Organization) to debate the issue. The objective is to present an alternative proposal to the suspension of intellectual property rights of vaccines, an initiative led by South Africa and India.

Interlocutors told Folha newspaper that the Europeans want to draft a text that can be taken to the WTO and overcome the impasse in the debate about patents on vaccines and other inputs used to combat the virus.

On one side, South Africa and India defend a project considered radical, which foresees a broad moratorium on licenses for at least three years. Meanwhile, countries that manufacture vaccines, such as Germany, resist. The United States, in turn, has publicly defended the temporary suspension of patents but has been asked to present more details about the terms of the proposal.

According to people who follow the issue, the European Union invited Brazil to join a group that would also include Chile, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The country has not yet replied to the Europeans but considers the moment promising for the construction of a consensus in the entity. The idea is to use the so-called third way led by the WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a basis for the proposal.

This is a set of measures, already supported by Brazil, that include the adoption of policies that facilitate the increase of vaccine production capacity in the world and the voluntary transfer of technology. But the text that the Europeans want to champion must go further and deal, in less radical terms, with intellectual property rights.

The assessment is that only by addressing the issue of patents will it be possible to convince the dozens of countries that today endorse the proposal made by India and South Africa to embark on an alternative wording, which would pave the way for overcoming the WTO impasse.

In the words of an interlocutor who follows the issue, the Europeans have signaled that they want to explore flexibilities that already exist in the TRIPS agreement, including compulsory licensing.

In this regard, one option under discussion is to update commitments such as the 2001 Doha declaration on the TRIPS agreement. The Doha declaration specifically cites the difficulties that, at that time, developing countries were facing with diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

It then states that the TRIPS agreement recognizes that countries “have the right to undertake compulsory licensing and the freedom to determine the terms on which this licensing takes place.

One of the possibilities under consideration is to turbocharge the Doha declaration and make clear that this kind of relaxation can be done during pandemics and times of international health emergencies.

Interlocutors also said they believe there is room to further detail the 2001 text and indicate under what conditions licenses could be suspended.

The Bolsonaro government has received criticism for not endorsing the line of India and South Africa, but argues that a broad patent break will not represent greater access to vaccines in the short term.

On April 28, Chancellor Carlos França stressed at a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies that Covid vaccines are “virtually impossible to copy” without the support of laboratories. “The big bottlenecks today, for access to vaccines, are the material limits of production capacity and issues linked to the complexity of supply chains,” he said.

“Experts say that vaccines are virtually impossible to be copied, in the short or medium term, without the support of the laboratories that developed them, even with the help of the patent,” said França.

On April 29, the Brazilian Senate approved a bill that allows breaking patents for Covid-19 vaccines, drugs, and also diagnostic tests. After much discussion and controversy, the bill was approved by 55 votes in favor and 19 against. The project now awaits a vote in the Chamber of Deputies.

The initial text, authored by Senator Paulo Paim (PT-RS), foresaw Brazil’s suspension from fulfilling obligations assumed in the TRIPS agreement to fight the new coronavirus pandemic.

The text’s rapporteur, Senator Nelsinho Trad (PSD-MS), however, has argued that it would not be feasible for the country to cease complying with international agreements just by enacting an ordinary statute. That is why he presented a substitute bill, in which he says he respects the TRIPS, but opens the possibility for case-by-case analysis.

Source: Folha

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