Trenton, March 2, 2024 ― Dean J. Paranicas, President and Chief Executive Officer of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, released the following statement concerning the World Trade Organization’s decision on expansion of the TRIPS waiver:
“The HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ) applauds the World Trade Organization’s decision not to expand the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver to include the intellectual property for COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostic tools. This expansion would have jeopardized the intellectual property resulting from the billions of dollars invested by life sciences companies in research to discover and deliver to patients the very therapies that led us out of the pandemic.
In the increasingly complex world of medical innovation, it is critically important to protect these investments. It is those intellectual property protections that provide the incentive to pursue new ideas, treatments and cures.
HINJ and New Jersey’s life sciences will continue working with all stakeholders by advocating solutions from the local to the international level that protect patient access to health care and preserve the ecosystem that delivers those life-saving medical advances for patients in New Jersey, the United States and around the world.”