Dr Aisling McMahon was recently invited to speak at a conference examining the “TRIPS waiver: Intellectual Property, Access to Essential Medicines, and the Coronavirus COVID-19” organised by Professor Matthew Rimmer, hosted by the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Faculty of Business and Law on the 10th December 2021. This event focused on the geopolitical debate over access to essential medicines during the COVID-19 public health crisis. It brought together researchers, experts and scholars working in the field of access to essential medicines — ranging through the disciplines of intellectual property, public health law, human rights, international law, and trade law.
Dr McMahon presented a paper entitled “The EU Counter-Proposal to the TRIPS Waiver: Opposition, False Promises and Delaying Real Solutions” which examined the European Union’s approach to the TRIPS waiver proposal. Since the outset, the EU has strongly opposed the TRIPS waiver proposal, and more recently, has put forward an alternative proposal for consideration. This paper outlined the EU’s opposition to the TRIPS waiver and critically analysed this EU counter proposal, which focuses primarily on compulsory licensing as a purported solution in the EU’s view to address issues posed by intellectual property rights in the COVID-19 context. The paper argued that the counter proposal is limited and fails to address many of the obstacles posed by how intellectual property rights are used within the COVID-19 context, particularly in the vaccine context. Instead, it argues that the EU position has detracted from finding an effective pathway to ameliorate global inequities around access to COVID-19 vaccines, and is serving to delay discussions and the prospect of adopting a TRIPS waiver.
A recording of Dr McMahon’s presentation, which was presented virtually, is available here. The recordings of other presentations from the event are available here.
Dr McMahon is an Associate Professor, Department of Law, Maynooth University. Dr McMahon’s research focuses primarily on intellectual property law and health law. She has published widely in leading international journals in these fields, including on the role of intellectual property rights in the COVID-19 context.