Despite US shift, opponents fight vaccine patent waiver
A health worker inoculates a man with a dose of the Covishield vaccine during a vaccination drive at a civil hospital in Jind, in the northern state of Haryana on Tuesday.
A deal on an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization was no closer to acceptance on Monday despite Washington's backing, due to expected scepticism about a new draft.
Negotiations reopened at the WTO on Monday, focused on a highly anticipated revised draft submitted by India, South Africa and dozens of other developing countries last week.
A surprise US shift earlier this month to support a patent waiver heaped pressure on remaining opponents like the European Union and Switzerland that are home to numerous drugmakers.
But Monday's discussions which turn out to be the 11th session since the initial waiver proposal in October failed to achieve a breakthrough.
The waiver's main backers presented their new draft in Monday's private WTO meeting, allowing key players to give their first official feedback on its contents.
The meeting is critical because it will determine if the talks will advance to "text-based negotiations" as sought by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
A Geneva trade official said the proposal to start text-based discussions "gained traction" on Monday, including from the United States, which said it was open to discussion on any proposal that could boost vaccine production and delivery.
It did not openly support the revised text, but said it was analyzing it.
Around 10 countries, including South Korea and Britain, continued to express doubts and asked for more time to study the new South Africa/India proposal.
Three sources close to the talks see problems with the text. "There is an ocean between this waiver proposal and what was suggested by the US," said a source involved in the talks who declined to be named.
"There's definitely no quick resolution for this."
While US Trade Representative Katherine Tai had previously said she is only focused on increasing vaccine access, the new draft also includes diagnostics, therapeutics and medical devices, among others.
The draft also sets a time span for a waiver seen as temporary of "at least three years" and allows the WTO's 164 members to determine when it ends.
