What is the proposal before WTO?It was jointly made by India and South Africa to WTO’s council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in October.
It seeks a general waiver on patents and other barriers on diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for covid-19 for the duration of the pandemic.
Faced with the biggest health crisis in a century, the proposal aims to improve access to treatments that would help nations, especially low-and-middle-income ones, save lives.
It was met with resistance from the US, European Union (EU) and other developed countries, but the Biden administration eased the US stance in May.Why is the waiver needed?All vaccine makers have struggled to rapidly scale up capacity.