The AIPPI (International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Protection) has just published a positioning, with ten items, regarding the suspension of certain TRIPS devices related to drugs and technologies related to the treatment of Covid-19, as has been proposed by some countries within the WTO. In the document, in which it “shares the concerns raised by the proponents and co-sponsors of the exemption”, the entity reaffirms the WTO as the appropriate forum for this debate. And it reaffirms the TRIPS Agreement, “one of the three pillars of the WTO”, in establishing minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property.
In the document, AIPPI states that “intellectual property rights should not be seen, a priori, by any member of the WTO as a barrier to the development, manufacture, distribution and supply of supplies and services of any kind” and that, on the contrary , should be part of “a broader national and international effort to address public health problems”.
According to the document, there is no evidence that intellectual property rights constitute a barrier to access to drugs and technologies related to COVID-19. The AIPPI warns that “the waiver of the provisions of TRIPS would have a negative impact in order to achieve the objectives mentioned above, both in the medium and long term”, while reiterating its support “to the right of WTO members to use the flexibilities already provided by the TRIPS to protect public health under Article 8 of the Agreement ”, encouraging them“ to implement functional domestic legal frameworks that allow them to do so quickly ”.
AIPPI, the document provides, considers that the execution, implementation and the consequent effects of a waiver in several legal systems must be properly evaluated before being implemented.
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