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Vaccines: at the WTO, states have the right to “drop” protections

2021-05-07T22:43:49.024Z


The Biden administration is proposing a waiver of patents to speed up the production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines around the world.


“Lifting the patents”

, as Joe Biden envisions, is not a utopia.

In force since 1995, the Adpic (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreements, concluded within the framework of the WTO (World Trade Organization), provide for this possibility.

"

In a concerted manner, the States can decide to suspend the rights conferred by certain patents

,

the inventions of which therefore become" copiable

"", summarizes Emmanuelle Trombe, associate lawyer in the health center of McDermott Will & Emery.

This assumption should be taken seriously.

"

If there is a strong political will from the United States and Europe, the WTO can do anything

" specifies Camille Pecnard, partner at the Lavoix cabinet.

Read also:

Vaccines: laboratories consider the lifting of patents "unnecessary and harmful"

Laboratories deprived of the exclusivity of their invention could certainly bring recourse to request fair compensation, if that provided for by the WTO seemed insufficient to them.

"But that would probably not prevent their patents from being usable by their competitors immediately",

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Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-05-07

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