Moved by
Baroness Chakrabarti
292: After Clause 148, insert the following new Clause—
“Public health condition for investment in research into vaccines and other health technologies
(1) Any relevant research or development funded or part-funded by public finances is subject to the public health condition.
(2) The Secretary of State, UK Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Intellectual Property Office and all public authorities must ensure that the public health condition is fulfilled in respect of such research or development and any material benefit derived from it.
(3) The public health condition is that—
(a) a proportionate share of any intellectual property resulting from the public funding (including intellectual property in all research, pre-clinical and clinical data, safety and efficacy information and manufacturing capability) is subject to Crown ownership and openly licensed,
(b) a proportionate share of any private profit resulting from the public funding is re-invested in further public health-related research, and
(c) any proportion of public funding is published and taken into account in relation to the setting of reasonable prices for the public procurement of medicines domestically and internationally.
(4) In addition, the Secretary of State must utilise, and actively support other countries to utilise, the full range of flexibilities within the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) for the purposes of public health.
(5) In the event of the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic, the Secretary of State must immediately—
(a) waive UK-registered patents, industrial designs, other intellectual property rights, and protections relating to undisclosed information relating to—
(i) vaccines,
(ii) medicines,
(iii) diagnostics and their associated technologies, and
(iv) materials,
necessary for combatting a pandemic internationally,
(b) issue relevant emergency compulsory directions to enable the domestic manufacturing of generic and biosimilar products, and
(c) support and implement any proposal to temporarily waive elements of the TRIPS Agreement at the World Trade Organization to assist wider global manufacturing of and access to health technologies.”
Member’s explanatory statement
This new Clause ensures public benefits in exchange for public financing of research and development. It would require the Secretary of State to support public health flexibilities under the TRIPS Agreement and, in the event of a pandemic, domestic and international knowledge-sharing to combat the emergency.