WTO Proposal Limiting Intellectual Property Rights For COVID-19 Worries US Business Group

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) A World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal to waive intellectual property rights (IP) to boost COVID-19 vaccine availability threatens to do the opposite by making inoculations less available while slowing responses to future pandemics, the US Chamber of Commerce warned on Tuesday.

"Proposals to waive intellectual property rights are misguided and a distraction from the real work of reinforcing supply chains and assisting countries to procure, distribute and administer vaccines to billions of the world's citizens," the Chamber of Commerce said in a press release.

The business advocacy group added that weakening those rights would also make it more difficult to quickly "develop and distribute vaccines or treatments in the future pandemics the world will face."

Brazil and India are lobbying the global trade group to restrict IP during the pandemic, while the US, EU warn that limiting IP would fail to address production and distribution bottlenecks, according to media reports.