The World Trade Organisation agreed on Friday to temporarily lift patents on Covid-19 vaccines after two years of bruising negotiations, but experts expressed scepticism that the deal will have a major impact on global vaccination inequality.
The unprecedented agreement, sealed by all 164 WTO members after late-night overtime talks, will grant developing countries the right to produce Covid-19 vaccines for five years "without the consent of the right holder".
Since October 2020, South Africa and India have called for intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines to be temporarily lifted so they can boost production to address the gaping inequality in access between rich and poor nations.
But Friday's compromise fell short of their earlier requests that the waiver apply to all countries – and also cover Covid tests and treatments.
Under the terms of the new deal, WTO members have six months to decide on whether to extend the measures "to cover the production and supply of Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics".
"This does not correspond to the initial request," said Jerome Martin, the co-founder of the Drug Policy Transparency Observatory, pointing to the fact that the deal only includes developing countries.
"We have to see what it does in the field, but it is not ambitious at all," he told AFP.
James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, said it was "a limited and disappointing outcome".
"The fact that the exception is limited to vaccines, has a five-year duration and does not address WTO rules on trade secrets makes it particularly unlikely to provide expanded access to Covid-19 counter-measures," he said in a statement.
"The pressure this week was to reach consensus in order to make multilateralism look like it works, which seems to have been the main justification for producing this decision."
Max Lawson, co-chairman of the People's Vaccine Alliance and Oxfam's head of inequality, singled out Switzerland, Britain and the European Union for "blocking anything that resembles a meaningful intellectual property waiver".
"The conduct of rich countries at the WTO has been utterly shameful," he said.
The agreement also disappointed the pharmaceutical lobby group IFPMA, which warned that "dismantling" patent protections would strangle innovation.
IFPMA's director general Thomas Cueni said: "The single biggest factor affecting vaccine scarcity is not intellectual property, but trade. This has not been fully addressed by the World Trade Organisation."
And while vaccine doses were scarce early in the pandemic, that is no longer the case.
Nearly 14 billion doses had been produced worldwide as of mid-June, according to research group Airfinity.
As supply soars, some vaccine makers like the giant Serum Institute of India have stopped producing doses due to falling demand.
Yet many developing countries still lag far behind the rest of the world in vaccination rates.
While 60 per cent of the world's population has received two vaccine doses, that number falls to 17 per cent in Libya, 8 per cent in Nigeria and less than 5 per cent in Cameroon, according to the World Health Organisation.
"Our focus now is to ensure we address demand by persuading global procurers for vaccines to source from African producers," the South African government said.
Pharma groups have said that the logistics involved in distributing vaccines in developing countries is a far bigger hurdle to rolling out doses.
Even India, which fought long and hard for the waiver, expressed doubts about whether the final compromise deal would have an effect.
Earlier this week, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that "my own feeling is, not a single factory, not one, will ever come up with the agreement that we are finally trying to negotiate and which may get approved".
"It is just too late," he said.
It marks the first time the WTO has temporarily lifted patents on vaccines, although in 2001 it set up a compulsory licensing mechanism for HIV treatments.
Francois Pochart, a patent specialist at the August Debouzy law firm in Paris, said the new WTO agreement is "a step forward" compared to those compulsory licences.
"Countries can decide on their own without having to make a request. The real novelty is that this waiver allows the country that produces the vaccine to also export to other markets, to another eligible member," he said.
But Christos Christou, the president of Doctors Without Borders, branded the deal "a devastating global failure".
"Despite lofty political commitments and words of solidarity, it has been discouraging for us to see that wealthy countries failed to resolve the glaring inequities in access to lifesaving Covid-19 medical tools for people in low- and middle-income countries."
Defined benefit and defined contribution schemes explained
Defined Benefit Plan (DB)
A defined benefit plan is where the benefit is defined by a formula, typically length of service to and salary at date of leaving.
Defined Contribution Plan (DC)
A defined contribution plan is where the benefit depends on the amount of money put into the plan for an employee, and how much investment return is earned on those contributions.
The five pillars of Islam
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
About Seez
Company name/date started: Seez, set up in September 2015 and the app was released in August 2017
Founder/CEO name(s): Tarek Kabrit, co-founder and chief executive, and Andrew Kabrit, co-founder and chief operating officer
Based in: Dubai, with operations also in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon
Sector: Search engine for car buying, selling and leasing
Size: (employees/revenue): 11; undisclosed
Stage of funding: $1.8 million in seed funding; followed by another $1.5m bridge round - in the process of closing Series A
Investors: Wamda Capital, B&Y and Phoenician Funds
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
'The Lost Daughter'
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Juventus v Napoli, Sunday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Match on Bein Sports
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2018 Kia Picanto
Price: From Dh39,500
Engine: 1.2L inline four-cylinder
Transmission: Four-speed auto
Power: 86hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 122Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.0L / 100km
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 570Nm from 2,300-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
Price: from Dh547,600
On sale: now
If you go...
Etihad Airways flies from Abu Dhabi to Kuala Lumpur, from about Dh3,600. Air Asia currently flies from Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu, with Berjaya Hotels & Resorts planning to launch direct chartered flights to Redang Island in the near future. Rooms at The Taaras Beach and Spa Resort start from 680RM (Dh597).
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
The specs: 2019 Audi A8
Price From Dh390,000
Engine 3.0L V6 turbo
Gearbox Eight-speed automatic
Power 345hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy, combined 7.5L / 100km
Votes
Total votes: 1.8 million
Ashraf Ghani: 923,592 votes
Abdullah Abdullah: 720,841 votes
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
MATCH INFO
Norwich City 1 (Cantwell 75') Manchester United 2 (Aghalo 51' 118') After extra time.
Man of the match Harry Maguire (Manchester United)
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Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
