China Supports WTO's Proposal to Waive COVID-19 Vaccine Patents

BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2021) China supports the proposal of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive intellectual property protection for coronavirus vaccines, Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday.

"The members of WTO are currently discussing the global accessibility of vaccines. China believes that WTO can play a positive role in this issue. China supports the WTO's proposal to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines and other anti-epidemic products and proposed to move the stage of textual consultation," Feng said.

The head of WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and US President Joe Biden also recently lent support to waive coronavirus vaccine patents. Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday, she expects that WTO member countries will make a decision to waive coronavirus vaccine patent at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) which will take place from November 30 to December 3 in Geneva.

According to her, an urgent solution must be found as to the waiver for COVID-19 vaccines in order to speed up vaccination around the world.

A proposal to waive patents on coronavirus vaccines was offered by India and South Africa at WTO in 2020. It was supported by almost 60 countries. It gained momentum after the US backed it last week. It is argued that the waiver of patents will increase access to doses in poorer countries. On the other hand, some European countries such as German, France, Italy officially oppose the proposal to waive patents. They aver that patents encourage firms to invest and produce COVID vaccines in record times.