Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment the Government has made of how the TRIPS outcome will help to achieve ensure the equitable distribution of second-generation vaccines across the world.

The consensus-based outcome reached at the World Trade Organisation’s Ministerial Conference streamlines processes provided in the TRIPS Agreement for developing countries to make use of the compulsory licensing (CL). The decision, which is limited to COVID-19 vaccines and has a duration of five years, is intended to facilitate production and exportation of vaccines by developing countries while protecting the international intellectual property framework, which has and will continue to allow the development and production of vaccines at unprecedented pace.