AN EXPERT IN intellectual property (IP) law is set to tell TDs that a proposed vaccine patent waiver would help lower- and middle-income countries access Covid-19 vaccines while still allowing Ireland to maintain IP protections.

The waiver, known as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver, was originally proposed by South Africa and India in October 2020 and would see a temporary lifting of vaccine IP to allow for poorer countries to access key Covid-19 vaccine technology.

This would potentially allow for the creation of generic vaccines, which could then be made and manufactured in developing countries.

Currently, Covid-19 vaccine technology patents are controlled by the companies and researchers that developed them, including Pfizer/BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca.

Professor Aisling McMahon, an IP Law expert from Maynooth University, is set to address the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment later this morning.

In her opening statement, McMahon will tell TDs and Senators that the proposed changes will only suspend the IP protections on an international level, but individual states can maintain protections if they wish.

“This waiver proposes to temporarily suspend certain IP obligations under TRIPS for Covid-19 health-technologies,” McMahon will say.

“If adopted, it would suspend WTO [World Trade Organisation] States’ obligations at the international TRIPS level. However, States like Ireland could likely maintain IP protections at a national level if they wished.

“The main likely effect of the waiver would be to allow low-and middle-income countries to avail of it, to enable entities within such countries to produce similar Covid-19 vaccines, medicines, or diagnostics without facing IP litigation.”

However, McMahon will tell TDs that the measure is not a “panacea” but would allow for increased vaccine production.

She will call for Ireland to advocate for a TRIPS waiver on both an EU and international level.

While Oxfam have called for the waiver to be implemented, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) have opposed the proposed waiver, with both set to appear before the Committee this morning

Both the IPHA and BioPharmaChem Ireland are set to call for IP rights to remain as they are currently.

In a joint opening statement to the committee, they will say that there are currently enough vaccine supplies, but that there are issues with distribution.

“Waiving intellectual property rights will not accelerate global Covid-19 vaccines access. Production is not the problem. There are already more than enough vaccines for the world,” IPHA and BioPharmaChem Ireland will say.

“The problem is they are not getting to the people who most need them fast enough.”

The group has called for further assistance to developing countries, saying that there is both vaccine hesitancy as well as medical supply shortages leading to vaccines expiring.

“The cause of global Covid-19 vaccine inequity is the capacity of some countries, mostly developing nations, to absorb, distribute and administer the doses they get,” the groups will say.

“In some of these countries, Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy is high. There are reports of shortages of syringes and medical equipment, as well as the destruction of significant quantities of doses of expired vaccines.

“This is not to blame countries for shortcomings. Rather, it is a signal to all of us to do more to help.”

Oxfam, however, will say that a continued opposition to the TRIPS waiver would be in “contravention of Ireland’s human rights obligations”, while also damaging Ireland’s international reputation as “a champion of low-income countries”.

In December 2021, the Seanad passed a motion that called on the Government to support the TRIPS waiver for Covid-19 vaccine technology.