Twenty months after the application by India and South Africa for a temporary suspension of patents on vaccines, drugs and diagnostic kits for CovidAfter endless delays and after a very harsh clash amid the noise of blackmail that took place between the EU and India, the World Trade Organization (WTO-WTO) closed at the beginning of Friday 17 June, two days late: the results of its 12th .interministerial conference.
In the official press release published on the night of June 16-17, the WTO announced with great force the agreement on the suspension of vaccine patents, news immediately republished by Bloomberg and by all major international agencies and thus been taken over by national media.
But the reality is very different: we are confronted a hoaxto an artfully constructed Fake News.
In which final documentIn fact, the patents are not even mentioned and the possibility of a suspension is not even mentioned. The text merely limits itself to presenting some simplifications for developing countries in the use of compulsory licenses, which are already provided for in the Trips Agreements and have nothing to do with the application for the temporary suspension of patents, which remains one of the essential instruments for the Protection of the right to health in every corner of the world.
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We are confronted with a shameful three card game: There is nothing behind so many words, while the fate of millions seems to be sealed.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), various NGOs including the Italian Committee No profit in the pandemic, protest and denounce communicative lies; around 1 p.m. on June 17 the WTO amends press releasethe “suspension of vaccine patents” disappears, replaced by “An exception to certain requirements relating to compulsory licensing of vaccines against COVID-19”; There is a difference like between day and night. But now the result has been reached, the mainstream media of the global village have done their job and it will be very difficult to convince the public that unfortunately things did not go that way: the patents were not suspended.
The last text is all about them compulsory licenses, that is, the already existing possibility that a country experiencing economic difficulties and overwhelmed by the pandemic decides, without prior authorization from the company that owns the patents, with which it must agree in any case, to the Vaccine manufacture resort to an economic reimbursement. The document introduces only some limited improvements in this mechanism that certainly cannot solve the need to ensure the necessary quantities of vaccines and pharmaceutical anti-Covid kits for all countries of the southern hemisphere.
Furthermore, the decision to resort to compulsory licenses in the hands of every single nation which would have to deal with the big pharmaceutical multinationals alone, with very little chance of achieving any significant result. It is not difficult to predict that it will be almost impossible to use these mechanisms as was previously the case in their previous version.
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It’s about a pure facade operation, which, to be optimistic, will only give India and South Africa a few more tools to try and resist the numerous lawsuits that multinational companies have filed and/or will bring about patent non-compliance by these countries . Also, this complicated compulsory licensing mechanism only applies to vaccines; for medicines and diagnostic kits for Covid everything is postponed for another six months at future WTO meetings.
The National President of Doctors Without Borders, Christos Christou, stated that the measures defined in the agreement “do not at all address the problem of pharmaceutical monopolies, do not guarantee sustainable access to life-saving medical tools and will set a negative precedent for future pandemics and global health crises”. In summary, the sanctity of patents and the dominance of profit over health have been reconfirmed. Here’s to everyone’s health, because, as we now well understand, a pandemic and its variants do not stop at borders. Today patents block vaccines and cures for Covid, Tomorrow it can happen with other health emergencies.
Adding to this disheartening picture is the confusion surrounding the location of theItalyas expressed to the WTO in a document stating: “World vaccine production has steadily increased and intellectual property has increased a facilitating factor…” A statement that represents a total upheaval of reality and certainly does not facilitate the discussion.
Our country is confirmed as one of the most important allies Big Pharma.