Thursday, December 10, 2020

Sri Lanka supports resolution at WTO to ensure access to medicines

Permanent Representative to the WTO Gothami Silva

Through a joint communication to the TRIPS Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) last month, India and South Africa called the world trade body to temporarily waive certain provisions of the WTO TRIPS Agreement related to obligations on protection and enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights to support the global COVID-19 pandemic response. The joint statement argued that in addition to patents, other forms of intellectual property (IP) rights, such as copyrights, industrial designs and trade secrets may also apply to products and technologies required for the fight against COVID-19 negatively impacting on their availability to patients. Accordingly, the statement requested waiving specific obligations of the TRIPS Agreement on protection and enforcement of patents, copyright and related rights, industrial designs and protection of undisclosed information during the current pandemic.

Supporting the joint statement, Gothami de Silva, Sri Lanka’s ambassador and permanent representative to the WTO in Geneva pointed out the adoption of this proposal will overcome potential obstacles that various categories of intellectual property rights may create to timely and unfettered access to technologies and products needed to address the pandemic. Therefore, the adoption of this proposal is critical to ensure the availability of medicinal products at affordable prices for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID 19 as well as other diseases.

The Sri Lankan ambassador pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on global pharmaceutical supply chains, which is leading to inequitable distribution of medicines that could disproportionately affect low and middle-income countries. The Sri Lankan representative to the WTO described efforts of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) to safeguard patients’ rights to access affordable medicine in Sri Lanka and the work done to ensure equitable distribution of medicines. WTO Members have already carried out urgent legal amendments to their national patent laws to circumvent potential challenges.

Making a strong statement the ambassador highlighted how the NMRA has transformed the pricing of essential medicines to make them more affordable for patients during the last few years. These important measures taken to increase the affordability of medicines have an enormous impact on the health of the population.

Going further, the Sri Lankan ambassador brought to the attention of the WTO a disturbing development witnessed in Sri Lanka during the current pandemic where some Pharma Companies gradually increased domestic prices of medicines when the Regulatory Authority’s’ attention is focused on containing the spread of the pandemic. The increase in retail prices of medicines by five companies in violation of conditions of registration issued by the NMRA caused much hardship to patients, especially during COVID 19 pandemic.

There have been investigations into these alleged anti-competitive practices, and the Regulatory Authority later issued notices of cancellation of registrations and import licenses to five Pharma Companies for violating conditions of registration under Section 65 of the NMRA Act No. 5 of 2015. These punitive actions have been taken against such offending companies to ensure affordability of medicines available to the public.

Sri Lanka has also decided to establish a special trade zone to accommodate such investments in the pharmaceutical sector, she added. Through this initiative, the government intends to meet at least 50% of the country’s current pharmaceutical requirements through local production.

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