European Commission vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis Council of the European Union (Foreign Affairs - Trade)

Subject: Letter to support a wide TRIPS Waiver

14 December 2022

Dear Mr. Dombrovskis, dear Members of the Council of the European Union,

In June 2022, at the twelfth Ministerial Conference, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS agreement (TRIPS Decision) applied to the manufacturing and export of vaccines. The TRIPS Decision largely reiterates existing flexibilities in the TRIPS agreement to allow production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, without significantly altering the global intellectual property regime.

The Decision not only fell short of the ambition of the waiver proposed by South Africa and India, and the EP Resolution in November 2021 calling on the EC to support a wide TRIPS waiver, for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, it also restricts its scope to only vaccines, with a six- month deadline to decide whether to extend the decision to therapeutics and diagnostics.
Access to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics remains unequal, with a number of low and middle income countries (LMIC) facing a lack of necessary tools for accurate diagnosis and treatments despite voluntary licenses granted by pharmaceutical companies.

On 14 September 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) reminded that widespread testing remains key to reduce deaths, reduce onward transmission and track the evolution of the pandemic globally. Yet testing in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) is significantly lower than in high income countries due in part to limited supply of diagnostic tests to low and middle income countries and lack of equipment adapted and affordable for low-resource settings.
Patent protection on Covid-19 diagnostic (e.g. CIRSPR and PCR) have inhibited expansion of production to LMICs. Limited manufacturing capacities, linked to patent-based market exclusivity, hindered the necessary scale up of production of vaccines. This could happen again, especially with therapeutics and last-generation diagnostics.

As members of the European Parliament we would like to emphasize that EU Institutions have already repeatedly signaled support for a product scope covering at least vaccines and therapeutics. The European Commission emphasized the use of compulsory licensing for equitable global access to COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines in its June 2021 Communication to WTO. The Council of the European Union published a draft decision in November 2021 explicitly referring to the use of the TRIPS flexibilities for COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. The European Parliament also called on the European Commission to support a wide TRIPS waiver, at MC12 for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.

We therefore would like to urge you to maintain the past positions with support of a broader product scope of the TRIPS decision.

In view of this, we believe that a request to support an extension of the decision to therapeutics and diagnostics is justified. Therefore, we call on the European Commission and Council to express their explicit support to an extension of the product scope of the TRIPS decision to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics, and express this position publicly before the WTO General Council meeting of 19 and 20 December 2022.

Such early public support would send a strong message to the wider WTO membership and the international community about EU commitment of European values of solidarity, equity, transparency and confirm EU commitment to multilateral solution to common problems.

In the unfortunate event that the decision on the extension is postponed, we call on the European Commission to advocate publicly in support of the extension of the flexibilities agreed for vaccines to tests and treatments. The Commission must ensure that the negotiations on the extension remain on top of the WTO agenda and conclude as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Matthieu, MEP (Greens/EFA, BE)
Kathleen Van Brempt, MEP (S&D, BE)
Samira Rafaela, MEP (RENEW, NL)
Saskia Bricmont, MEP (Greens/EFA, BE)
Marc Botenga, MEP (The Left, BE)
Mohammed Chahim, MEP (S&D, NL)
Barry Andrews, MEP (Renew, IE)
Éric Andrieu, MEP (S&D, FR)
Tilly Metz, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE)
Dietmar Köster, MEP (S&D, DE)
Francisco Guerreiro, MEP (Greens/EFA, PT)
Pierre Larrouturou, MEP (S&D, FR)
Idoia Villanueva, MEP (The Left, ES)
Antoni Comín, MEP (ES)
Rosa D'Amato, MEP (Greens/EFA, IT)
Yannick Jadot, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Aurore Lalucq, MEP (S&D, FR)
Malin Björk, MEP (The Left, SE)
Manon Aubry, MEP (The Left, FR)
Robert Biedroń, MEP (The Left, PL)
Reinhard Bütikofer, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE)
Margrete Auken, MEP (Greens/EFA, DK)
Dimitrios Papadimoulis, MEP (The Left, GR)
Sara Cerdas, MEP (S&D, PT)
Ernest Urtasun, MEP (Greens/EFA, ES)
Tiziana Beghin, MEP (IT)
Michèle Rivasi, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Agnes Jongerius, MEP (S&D, NL)
Lara Ianthe Wolters, MEP (S&D, NL)
Adriana Maldonado López, MEP (S&D, ES)
Romana Jerkovic, MEP (S&D, HR)
Sylvie Guillaume, MEP (S&D, FR)
Alviina Alametsä, MEP (Greens/EFA, FI)
Katrin Langensiepen, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE)
Rasmus Andresen, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE)
Anna Cavazzini, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE)
François Alfonsi, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Benoît BITEAU, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Damien Carême, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
David Cormand, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Karima Delli, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Claude Gruffat, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Caroline Roose, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Mounir Satouri, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Marie Toussaint, MEP (Greens/EFA, FR)
Joachim Schuster, MEP (S&D, DE)
Malte Lenz Gallée, MEP (Greens/EFA, DE)
Ana Miranda Paz, MEP (Greens/EFA, ES)
Thomas Waitz, MEP (Greens/EFA, AT)