TOPIC : GS 3 Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
A TRIPS waiver is useful but not a magic pill
What is the news?
The United States has finally relented and declared its support for a temporary waiver of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for COVIDÂ19 vaccines at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Provision
Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS agreement covering copyrights, industrial designs, patents, and undisclosed trade information related to the prevention, containment, or treatment of COVIDÂ19.
Analyses
- The U.S.’s support of the TRIPS waiver is a significant step forward in the global fight against the pandemic.
- The U.S.’s decision would cause other holdouts like Canada and the European Union to give up their opposition.
- Legally, the waiver is surely possible since Article IX of the WTO Agreement allows for waiving obligations in ‘exceptional circumstances’, which the COVIDÂ19 pandemic undoubtedly.
- The stumbling block is the political will of the richer countries that house the giant pharmaceutical corporations producing COVIDÂ19 vaccines
- The countries would now negotiate on the text of the waiver at the WTO.
- If the experience of negotiating such waivers, especially on TRIPS, were anything to go by, it would be too early to celebrate.
- In the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa in the 1990s, the WTO adopted a decision in 2003 waiving certain TRIPS obligations to increase the accessibility of medicines in countries that lacked manufacturing capability.
- Specifically, the obligation contained in Article 31(f ) of TRIPS ,that medicines produced under a compulsory licence are predominantly for
- The domestic market of that country was waived.
- This paving the way for the export of such medicines to a country that lacked manufacturing capability.
- This waiver later incorporated as Article 31 is in the TRIPS agreement, was subject to several stringent requirements such as the drugs so manufactured are to be exported to that nation only.
- The medicines should be easily identifiable through different colour and Shape
- Only the amount necessary to meet the requirements of the importing country are to be manufactured
- The importing country has to notify to the WTO’s TRIPS Council
- Given these cumbersome requirements, hardly any country, in the last 17 years, made effective use of this waiver.
Overcoming key obstacles
- While the TRIPS waiver would lift the legal restrictions on manufacturing COVIDÂ19 vaccines,
- It would not solve the problem of the lack of access to technological ‘know- how’ related to manufacturing COVIDÂ19 vaccines.
- Waiving IP protection does not impose a legal requirement on pharmaceutical companies to transfer or share technology.
- Governments would have to be proactive in negotiating pharmaceutical companies to transfer technology using various legal and policy tools including financial incentives.
- TRIPS waiver would enable countries to escape WTO obligations, it will not change the nature of domestic IP regulations.
Challenges need to be addressed
It would work well only if countries simultaneously address the nonÂIP bottlenecks such as technology transfer, production constraints, and other logistical challenges such as inadequacy of supply chains and unavailability of raw materials to manufacture vaccines and medicines.
Way forward
The Indian government should immediately put in place a team of best IP lawyers who could study the various TRIPS waiver scenarios and accordingly recommend the changes to be made in the Indian legal framework.
Mains question
The U.S.Âsupported move will have an effect if countries simultaneously address nonÂIP bottlenecks among other things. Critically Analyse
PRELIMS PUNCHERS
- Leatherback Turtle
Leatherback turtles are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard, like other turtles. They are the largest sea turtle species and also one of the most migratory, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Pacific leatherbacks migrate from nesting beaches in the Coral Triangle all the way to the California coast to feed on the abundant jellyfish every summer and fall.
Although their distribution is wide, numbers of leatherback turtles have seriously declined during the last century as a result of intense egg collection and fisheries bycatch. Globally, leatherback status according to IUCN is listed as Vulnerable
- Kaziranga National Park
Kaziranga National Park is a national park in the Golaghat, Karbi Anglong and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India. The sanctuary, which hosts two-thirds of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses, is a World Heritage Site. It  is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, criss-crossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, and the park includes numerous small bodies of water.
The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer. Kaziranga is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for conservation of avifaunal species. When compared with other protected areas in India, Kaziranga has achieved notable success in wildlife conservation. Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, the park combines high species diversity and visibility.
- The Foreign Contribution (regulation) Act, 2010
It is an act of the Parliament of India, by the 42nd Act of 2010. It is a consolidating act whose scope is to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental there to. It is designed to correct shortfalls in the predecessor act of 1976.
It sought to make it mandatory for office bearers of any NGO to provide their Aadhaar numbers. It also grants the government powers to stop utilisation of foreign funds by an organisation through a “summary enquiry”. The bill aims at strengthening the compliance mechanism and enhancing transparency and accountability in receiving and utilisation of foreign contributions and facilitating genuine non-governmental organisations or associations who are working for the welfare of the society
- The Nicobar megapode
It is a megapode found in some of the Nicobar Islands (India). Like other megapode relatives, it builds a large mound nest with soil and vegetation, with the eggs hatched by the heat produced by decomposition.
The species is found only in the Nicobar Islands. This range is so well separated from the main megapode distribution that in 1911, it was suggested, on the basis that many megapodes were domesticated and transported by native islanders, that it may have been introduced into the Nicobar Islands. Its IUCN status is Vulnerable
PRELIMS QUESTIONS
Qn 1.Consider the following statement with reference to Leatherback Turtle
- They are the smallest sea turtle species
- Its status according to IUCN is listed as Endangered
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only                                (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them                (d). None of the above
Answer : D
Leatherback turtles are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard, like other turtles. They are the largest sea turtle species and also one of the most migratory, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Pacific leatherbacks migrate from nesting beaches in the Coral Triangle all the way to the California coast to feed on the abundant jellyfish every summer and fall.
Although their distribution is wide, numbers of leatherback turtles have seriously declined during the last century as a result of intense egg collection and fisheries bycatch. Globally, leatherback status according to IUCN is listed as Vulnerable
Qn 2. Consider the following statement with reference to FRCA Act
1.It sought to make it mandatory for office bearers of any NGO to provide their Aadhaar numbers
- It also grants the government powers to stop utilisation of foreign funds by an organisation through a “summary enquiry”
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only                                (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them                (d). None of the above
Answer : C
It is an act of the Parliament of India, by the 42nd Act of 2010. It is a consolidating act whose scope is to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental there to. It is designed to correct shortfalls in the predecessor act of 1976.
It sought to make it mandatory for office bearers of any NGO to provide their Aadhaar numbers. It also grants the government powers to stop utilisation of foreign funds by an organisation through a “summary enquiry”. The bill aims at strengthening the compliance mechanism and enhancing transparency and accountability in receiving and utilisation of foreign contributions and facilitating genuine non-governmental organisations or associations who are working for the welfare of the society