Council for TRIPS

Paragraph 8 of the MinIsterial Decision on the TRIPS AGreement

INformal THematic Session for external stakeholder input

Report by the Chair

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1.  Under paragraph 8 of the Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement (document _WT/L/1141), Members agreed to decide on an extension of the Decision to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics within six months of adoption. Following the extension of this deadline by the General Council on 19 December 2022[1], Members have continued their discussion on this question in the Council for TRIPS in formal and informal settings. In order to support a fact and evidence-based discussion, the Council agreed at its meeting in June 2023, to invite international organizations, civil society, business representatives and academics to share facts, evidence and experiences relevant to Members' deliberations under paragraph 8 of the TRIPS Decision. This Informal Thematic Session for External Stakeholder Input was held on 28 September 2023 at the WTO premises in a hybrid format.

2.  This was the first time that the Council organized a Thematic Session with outside speakers as part of its proceedings, and I would like to commend Members for having agreed to use this format for collecting views and information from outside the organization. With this approach we are following the example of Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, who is also championing a more direct engagement with stakeholders from the "real world", as was evidenced at this year's Public Forum. The programme for the Thematic Session was developed on the basis of suggestions received from Members. It aimed to provide a geographically and organizationally balanced cross-section of stakeholders in the hope that the broad spectrum of expertise and views represented will be helpful for Members – and the Council as a whole – to find common ground and develop a constructive path forward.

3.  The Council heard interventions from 22 speakers from a wide range of perspectives, who kindly agreed to share facts, evidence and experiences from their respective areas of expertise. The rich and detailed interventions helped illuminate certain points and arguments of this long-standing debate in much more detail. The data and analysis illustrated in the first session provided up-to date perspectives on the market situation of therapeutics and diagnostics, while recognizing certain data gaps. The perspectives of our colleagues from international organizations in the second session highlighted their activities surrounding intellectual property in the context of pandemic response, and the Medicines Patent Pool provided first-hand experience of its licensing approach regarding COVID-19 treatments.

4.  In the third session, civil society organizations explored the nature of the MC12 Decision in the context of TRIPS flexibilities and provided health-related experiences from the grass-roots in developing countries. Business representatives from the pharmaceutical industry – both originator and generic companies from a range of countries – shared their experiences and their views on what made collaboration and diversified production possible, and what was needed to ensure this in the future. Finally, academics gave a detailed legal view on the nature and legal operation of the MC12 Decision, and some proposed a more proactive and institutionalised licensing approach to tackle this and future pandemics.

5.  Feedback across the membership suggests that the Thematic Session was well received and considered useful, and I hope Member will consider using this or a similar format again in the future.

6.  This report contains the programme of the event, the biographies of speakers, and summaries of the presentations that have been provided by the speakers themselves.[2]