Suyash Shrivastava & Neelakshi Joshi, Indore Institute Of Law, Indore
ABSTRACT
The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement was introduced after successful lobbying by the developed nations, in order to protect the creations of mind at the transnational level and upend duplication of their efforts in other countries. The debates over the provisions of this agreement revolve around the rights of a patent holder and the interests of the public. The agreement, though, offers flexibilities under Article 31 (compulsory licensing) but its application has always been contentious, as the rich nations have predominantly been against this provision. While there have been talks at some instances since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, on the virtue of the TRIPS agreement, it intensified after India and South Africa proposed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for waiver of patent rights on vaccines. The claim that a patent waiver is a prerequisite to resolve the vaccine crisis seems to be misguided as the real issue lies with the shortage of raw material and lack of know-how of manufacturing process, which is surely not going to proliferate in case of a waiver, instead, it will put the governments at odds with the developers. Invoking compulsory licensing will be a feasible alternative as it will be under the auspices of law and will ensure safe and efficacious vaccine, also deep cooperation with the vaccine developers will provide an insight into the manufacturing process and gradually will accelerate the production, as transfer of technology is the key and that remains in the hands of developers that have carried out the R&D.
Keywords: TRIPS, Compulsory Licensing, Waiver, Crisis, R&D.
