The TRIPS Waiver: Intellectual Property, Access to Essential Medicines, and the Coronavirus COVID-19
Australian Centre for Health Law Research
QUT Faculty of Business and Law
Friday, 10 December 2021
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Z1064, Gibson Room, Level 10, Z Block
QUT Gardens Point Campus 4:30 pm – 4:50 pm
Beyond The TRIPS Waiver
Professor Natalie Stoianoff (UTS) (by video)
Abstract
‘But it’s not vaccines that will stop the pandemic, it’s vaccination. We must ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines, and ensure every country receives them and can roll them out to protect their people, starting with the most vulnerable.’ WHO on COVID-19 Vaccines 2021 ([ Ссылка ])
This is the point of the TRIPS Waiver, ensuring that private monopoly rights, such as patents, don’t work against the greater good of ensuring ‘…the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being’ (WHO Constitution (1946)). The right to health is contained in article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and this Covenant requires States Parties to take specific steps ‘to achieve the full realization of this right’, including: (c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;(d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness (article 12(2) ICESCR).This presentation reviews the issues surrounding the balancing of rights between the public and vaccine patent holders, considering the role of TRIPS flexibilities, the failings of WHO initiatives in addressing the balance and the potential solution beyond the TRIPS Waiver.
Biography
Natalie P. Stoianoff is a Professor and Director of the Intellectual Property Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney. This Program provides the complete knowledge requirements for registration as a Patent and Trade Marks Attorney under the Trans-Tasman Intellectual Property Attorneys’ Board. Natalie is also the Chair of the Indigenous Knowledge Forum Committee, a member of the UTS Commercialisation Advisory Panel and co-convenor of the Technology and Intellectual Property Research Cluster. Her international leadership both academically and professionally has resulted in her election in 2021 as President of the Asian Pacific Copyright Association and her membership of the Australian Academy of Law.Natalie's interdisciplinary research is concerned with new technologies including the legal, ethical and commercial aspects of biotechnology. Her research interests include patenting of living organisms, genes and pharmaceuticals, software and business methods, protecting traditional/Indigenous knowledge and culture, technology transfer, environmental taxation and climate law. Natalie has an extensive track record in investigating the operation of intellectual property law across multiple jurisdictions and cultures.
As a joint recipient of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant (2005-08), Natalie investigated intellectual property enforcement and awareness building in the People’s Republic of China. She also led an Indigenous Knowledge Forum project on Recognising and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge associated with Natural Resource Management (2013-14), funded by the Aboriginal Communities Fund of the North West Local Land Services. The White Paper produced by that project led to the award of an ARC Linkage Grant (2016-19) for the project - Garuwanga: Forming a Competent Authority to Protect Indigenous Knowledge - which explores the governance framework for an access and benefit-sharing regime. She is the author of numerous publications, including Commercialisation of Intellectual Property (as lead author, Lexis Nexis, 2019) and Intellectual Property Law: Text and Essential Cases (as co-author, Federation Press), which has been adopted by several Australian universities and is now in its fifth edition. She is currently the managing editor of the series for the Indigenous Knowledge Forum (Lexis Nexis, first edition published 2017).Natalie’s current research includes collaborative work on information literacies with colleagues at the University of Library Studies and Information Technology, Sofia. This project, A Conceptual Educational Model for Enhancing Information Literacy in an University Information Environment, is funded by a three year grant (2020-2022) from the Bulgarian National Science Fund.
