After tough negotiations, they only decided on Friday at the last minute to extend the term of the agreement. Actually, there should be a solution on Saturday whether the patent rules for tests and medicines should also be relaxed after corona vaccinations.
In June, the 164 WTO countries decided to relax patent rights for corona vaccinations. This should stimulate global production and also enable free access to vaccines in poorer countries. At the same time, the member countries agreed in June to reach an agreement within six months on whether patent rights should also be relaxed for “diagnostics and therapy” for Covid-19.
The discussions about this turned out to be very tough. Even the extension of the agreement period agreed at the last minute by the responsible sub-committee was only decided after weeks of negotiations. It has yet to be officially decided. A new deadline was not mentioned in the committee’s draft resolution announced Friday.
(SDA)