COVID-19 Vaccine, TRIPS, and Global Health Diplomacy: India’s Role at the WTO Platform
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Research International
Abstract
In light of the devastation caused by COVID-19, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
and vaccine research and development (R&D) have been occupying a prominent position in the field of global health diplomacy
(GHD). Most countries, international organizations, and charitable organizations have been engaged in the R&D of COVID-19
vaccines to ensure timely affordability and accessibility to all countries. Concomitantly, the World Trade Organization (WTO)
provides some provisions and enforcements regarding copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications, and industrial
designs. Given these safeguards, it is considered that intellectual property rights (IPRs) have become major barriers to the
affordability and accessibility of vaccines/medicines/technology, particularly to the developing/least developed countries.
Realizing the gravity of the pandemic impact, as well as its huge population and size, India has elevated this issue in its global
health diplomacy by submitting a joint proposal with South Africa to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a temporary
waiver of IPRs to ensure timely affordability and accessibility of COVID-19 medical products to all countries. However, the
issue of the temporary waive off had become a geopolitical issue. Countries that used to claim per se as strong advocates of
human rights, egalitarianism, and healthy democracy have opposed this proposal. In this contrasting milieu, this paper is
aimed at examining how the TRIPS has become a barrier for developing countries’ development and distribution of
vaccines/technology; secondly, how India strategizes its role in the WTO in pursuant of its global health diplomacy? We
conclude that the IPRs regime should not become a barrier to the accessibility/affordability of essential drugs and vaccines. To
ensure access, India needs to get more engaged in GHD with all the involved global stakeholders to get strong support for
their joint proposal. The developed countries that rejected/resisted the proposal can rethink their full support
Description
Table of Contents
Keywords
COVID-19, Global health diplomacy, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
Citation
Vijay Kumar Chattu, Bawa Singh, Jaspal Kaur, Mihajlo Jakovljevic, "COVID-19 Vaccine, TRIPS, and Global Health Diplomacy: India’s Role at the WTO Platform", BioMed Research International, vol. 2021, Article ID 6658070, 8 pages, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6658070