Policy Brief: Compulsory licensing vs. the IP waiver: what is the best way to end the COVID-19 pandemic? - Dr Olga Gurgula

"By October 2021, more than 6 billion doses had been administered globally. However, more than 80% of these doses were administered in high-income and upper-middle-income countries, and only 2.5% of people in low-income countries received at least one dose. This inequitable distribution of vaccines has enabled the virus to continue spreading and mutating, putting millions of lives at risk" - read a new policy brief, by Dr Olga Gurgula, published in South Centre Policy Brief. 

Key conclusions:

• This policy brief has demonstrated that both proposals that are currently discussed at the WTO, i.e., compulsory licensing of patents and the IP waiver, have their strengths and weaknesses.
• At the same time, the IP waiver has the potential to overcome many of the difficulties that the current mechanism of compulsory licensing of patents is fraught with. It would, however, need to be supplemented with an additional mechanism that would allow involuntary technology transfer in the form of compulsory licensing of trade secrets.
• Moreover, while the debates at the WTO continue, governments are advised to revise their national IP laws, including making the currently available mechanism of compulsory licensing of patents more efficient by removing all the bureaucratic hurdles and enabling a swift and timely grant of such licenses when necessary.

Read the full brief here