Difficult Debate on an Intellectual Property Protection Waiver to Fight COVID-19
Difficult Debate on an Intellectual Property Protection Waiver to Fight COVID-19

Author(s): Szymon Zaręba
Subject(s): Welfare systems, Health and medicine and law, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: COVID-19; intellectual property; protection waiver; debate;
Summary/Abstract: The negotiations currently taking place at the WTO on the suspension of, among others, patent protection for vaccines and medicines against COVID-19, are at a standstill. This creates a risk of widening the rift between developing countries, which mostly support the idea, and some developed countries, which oppose it. It also makes it more difficult to increase the supply of patented items, particularly of vaccines, to an extent undermining other efforts by countries and international organisations to contain the pandemic. It is in the interest of Poland and the EU to overcome this impasse.

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