Quite understandably, news of the emergency approval of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine overshadowed a dispute in the World Trade Organization (WTO) between developing countries and pharmaceutical giants last week.

Essentially, the WTO was unable to agree on a proposal to exempt COVID-19 vaccines from intellectual property rights until a majority of the world’s population has been immunised against the novel coronavirus.

As we understand it, the waiver, which would apply to certain rules in the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), would allow many developing countries which have the capacity to scale up production sites for urgent COVID-19 medical goods, including vaccines.

The proposal, we are told, was made by India and South Africa, as both wish to boost the global production of vaccine doses to combat the pandemic. It has received support from approximately 100 countries.

However — and this was to be expected — it has been strongly opposed by big pharmaceutical companies.

Mr Thomas Cueni, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, is reported as saying that IP rights encourage a strong innovation business model that has enabled development of COVID-19 tools.

“We would have had no chance to move as quickly developing treatments or vaccines without the IP system,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Mr Cueni as arguing last week. He argued that the beneficiaries of IP waivers and transfers of such brand new technology would need years to build their production capacity from scratch.

“Even if the patents were waived,” he said, “not a single more vaccine would reach the people during the pandemic.”

The response, as we said, was not surprising for the simple fact that pharmaceutical firms are in business to make as big a return on their investment as possible.

Undoubtedly, their focus on producing vaccines and other medicines is driven by a commitment to preserving human health and wellness, but charity does not outweigh their sense of business.

The AFP report states that, during the TRIPS meeting, South Africa urged that patents and copyright should not create barriers to timely access to affordable medical products, while the European Union said the IP system was part of the solution to the challenge of universal and equitable access to vaccines and COVID-19 treatments.

At the same time, the United States pointed out that manufacturing capacity and supply chain problems were the most pressing concerns regarding vaccines.

As it now stands, the issue will again be discussed at the next meeting of the WTO’s General Council scheduled for today and tomorrow. But, given that WTO member states take decisions by consensus, there is very little confidence that an agreement will be reached as both sides appear to be holding firm to their positions.

Both sides, we believe, have credible arguments; therefore, it would be good if some compromise could be reached. The debate, we suggest, is one worth following, because the decisions taken at that level do affect us all.