US backs TRIPS waiver: More to the story than just vaccine patents

Patents for complex biologics like vaccines is often governed by multiple patents, which may be owned by different entities.

The US has announced its limited support for the “TRIPS waiver”, a proposal to suspend intellectual property protections for products and technologies needed for the fight against COVID-19, including vaccines, for the duration of the pandemic.

This would involve a temporary suspension of certain rules set out in the TRIPS Agreement, the intellectual property treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The waiver was first proposed by India and South Africa – two countries with robust generic pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity – in October 2020 as one important tool to address availability of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostic tools