BEIJING: China supports talks on waiving intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines, Beijing’s commerce ministry said Thursday, amid a global push to widen access to jabs.
The World Trade Organization has for months faced calls to temporarily remove patent protections on coronavirus vaccines, in a bid to get the drugs to poorer countries struggling to inoculate their people.
The US has backed the proposal, but some European leaders have expressed scepticism over whether a waiver will improve accessibility.
“China supports the World Trade Organization’s proposal on intellectual property exemptions, for anti-epidemic materials such as Covid-19 vaccines, to enter the text consultation stage,” Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said.
Beijing believes the WTO can play an “active role” in improving vaccine availability globally, he said, though he did not elaborate on further moves by the world’s second-largest economy.
Shares in Asia-listed vaccine makers tumbled last week after the US backed the plan for a waiver on Covid-19 patent protections — including those of Chinese companies like Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical and CanSino Biologics.
Fosun has rights to develop and market BioNTech’s shot in China, while CanSino manufactures one of the country’s primary domestic vaccines.The IP plan was filed at the WTO by India and South Africa on October 2 last year and garnered support from a host of developing countries which — correctly — anticipated being left behind in the vaccination race.
The original text proposed a temporary exemption from certain obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), so that any country can produce vaccines without worrying about patents.
The waiver would also cover “industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information”, and would last “until widespread vaccination is in place globally, and the majority of the world’s population has developed immunity”.
The WTO’s General Council, its highest-level decision-making body, debated the issue earlier on Wednesday before Washington’s dramatic about-turn.
India and South Africa pledged to present an amended text, and had indicated they could be open to some compromise, said the WTO.
Spokesman Keith Rockwell said the debates had been “very constructive” — more so than in previous sessions — even if the 164 member states remain divided.
WTO members are expected to meet to discuss the text revisions by the end of May, ahead of a formal TRIPS Council meeting on June 8 and 9.

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