The Proposed TRIPS Waiver and Pharmaceutical Industry’s Concerns About Counterfeit COVID-19 Vaccines

Abstract

Corporations are expected to pursue profit-maximising strategies. They do not like competition and look for strategies to extract maximum revenue from their patent- protected products. They like to dominate markets by having exclusive rights and by extending their exclusive rights. It is duty of the Australian government to intervene through policy and legislative measures when the public interest is actually or potentially undermined, especially in times of emergencies.

The COVID-19 crisis exposed vulnerabilities of supply chains and put global healthcare systems under critical strain. The Australian government’s policy and legislative response is required to address the imbalance between the corporate interest and the public interest in the context of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. There is a pressing need to consider policy initiatives that are aimed at expanding equitable access to COVID-19 related health technologies, especially vaccines. Patent rights should not be allowed to stand in the way of saving human lives. Australia needs to support the proposal of temporarily waiving intellectual property protections to scale up production and supply of vaccines and other COVID-19 related treatments and diagnostics.

Brand-name pharmaceutical industry’s claim that the proposed TRIPS waiver will result in proliferation of counterfeit vaccines and treatments is not supported by empirical evidence. If there is a tangible risk of counterfeit vaccines, governments have mechanisms in place to curb any malpractices. Governments can further strengthen their existing mechanisms to deal with any issues hypothetically raised by brand-name pharmaceutical industry.