Over 140 million people all over the world have contacted Covid-19 in the last 16 months, and we have witnessed over 3 million deaths worldwide. A key strategy to stop the pandemic is to have the rate of vaccination around the world exceed the speed of the spread.

This petition seeks support for a temporary waiver of one year of the intellectual property rights --  the Trade Related Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement for covid vaccines and medical products -- as requested by India and South Africa with the backing of forty-six Least Developed Countries (LDC). The TRIPS waiver proposal would facilitate technology transfers from the US, UK and other EU nations so that Covid-19 medical products, including vaccines could be produced quickly and affordably by manufacturers around the world. 

Covid-19 variants (B.1.1.7, B.1.1.28, B.1.351 and B.1.617) have spread in Britain, Brazil, South Africa, India respectively. Until these (and newer) variants are controlled the US, UK, EU and the many parts of the world will continue to spiral as they are hit by the second, third and subsequent waves as the virus spreads across geographic boundaries. An equitable distribution of vaccines and medical resources around the world would be a necessary step to improve our chances of ending the pandemic.

There is an added benefit. The Indian vaccine COVAXIN is reportedly effective against the variants as per reports from the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research), but manufacturing capacity is limited. Suspension of the IPR can allow global production of this vaccine to fight these variants.

The goal of this petition is not to dilute the value of breakthrough innovation and the impactful investments made by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca Johnson & Johnson and other manufactures. The World Trade Organization (WTO) can negotiate that the nations benefitting from the technology transfer pay a reasonable fee to the original manufacturers. Also the temporary suspension of IPR can be (in part) compensated by extending the life of the patent to beyond the twenty year period.

We request President Biden, Vice President Harris and the US government, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the UK government, as the leaders of the free world, to partner with the World Trade Organization and the pharmaceutical companies, and promote this temporary suspension of IPR for Covid-19 vaccines.