In June, the 164 WTO countries decided to relax patent rights for corona vaccinations. This should boost global production and enable free access to vaccinations in poorer countries as well. At the same time, the member countries agreed in June to agree within six months whether patent rights should also be relaxed for “diagnostics and therapy” for Covid-19.
The discussions about it turned out to be extremely tough. Even the extension of the agreement period agreed at the last minute by the responsible subcommittee was only decided after weeks of negotiations. It still has to be officially decided. A new deadline was not mentioned in the committee’s draft resolution announced on Friday.
