In a momentous shift, the US recently agreed to support a waiver of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The waiver would suspend intellectual property rights, such as patents and trademarks, on products required to fight COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic.
Until the announcement, the US, alongside the European Union, Norway, Canada, Australia, the UK, Switzerland, Brazil and Japan, had been steadfast in their position that stringent patent protection is key to vaccine supply and the global effort to tackle COVID-19.
...
AllAfrica Subscription Content
You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.
You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.
For information about our premium subscription services:
You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »
Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article