Covid-19

Cross-party committee urges Varadkar to support patent waiver for Covid vaccines

The World Trade Organisation will next week discuss a controversial proposal to partially waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines

Protesters in London marching in opposition to the British government’s opposition to a patent waiver for Covid vaccines in October 2021. Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

A cross-party Oireachtas committee has urged the government to support a proposal to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, as global discussions continue over access to pandemic medicines.

The Oireachtas committee on enterprise, trade and employment wrote to Leo Varadkar last month urging him to support a waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement.

Maurice Quinlivan, the Sinn Féin TD who chairs the committee, wrote in the letter that members ...