Volume: 25 Issue: 9 - Mark Eccleston-Turner and Michelle Rourke

The changing position of the United States on this issue has led many commentators to hope that the waiver stands a genuine chance of passing, and passing faster than the previous WTO IP waiver, which took ten years to negotiate.5 This Insight will highlight that while promptly passing the TRIPS waiver is a vital step in ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for the world’s poorest popula. [...] The current arrangement is such that a potential vaccine manufacturer must survey the patent landscape, identify all of the relevant patents that apply to the manufacture of a particular COVID-19 vaccine, negotiate a license for each of these technologies, and only then can they begin manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine. [...] The TRIPS Agreement recognizes the importance of technology transfer through its Objectives,17 and Article 66.2 of TRIPS states that “developed country Members shall provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technolog. [...] This is despite the fact that the importance of technology transfer for pandemic preparedness and ASIL In sights 4 procurement was stressed in the reports of the PIP Framework’s Advisory Group and the WHO Director-General during negotiations of the PIP Framework.22 It is clear, therefore, that developed country Members of the WTO need to provide a strong commitment to share know-how and/or provide. [...] 17 “The protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge and in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations.” 18 TRIPS Agreement, art.