Comments on Implications of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Commitments/Regimes and Proposed Commitments/Regimes and Other Proposed Commitments in the WHO Pandemic Agreement

Abstract

This comment makes suggestions on how the US can promote more equitable and timely access to pandemic treatments, tests and other mitigation measures with respect to intellectual property. It endeavors to explain five fundamental issues to address in the proposed pandemic treaty based on lessons that should be learned from the recent COVID pandemic to avoid replicating those problems in the future. First, an essential lesson is that requests for voluntary action by countries and companies are ineffective. Second, there are IP barriers beyond patents that can limit adequate access to treatments that need to be addressed. Third, international obligations that limit the ability of individual countries to act even when they recognize IP barriers must be timely addressed; waiting until a pandemic to start negotiating these rights is too late. Fourth, there is widespread misunderstanding concerning whether maintaining usual IP rights is essential to innovation and other misstatements that must be rejected. In addition, this comment provides specific suggestions on language in proposed articles 9-11 (R&D, Sustainable Production & Transfer of Technology), as requested.

Keywords: WHO, COVID, pandemic treaty, pandemic agreement, IP, technology transfer, R&D, patent

JEL Classification: F19, F55,F59,I14,I15,I18, L52,L59,K29,K33,K39