Indonesia is backing a proposal by developing countries to waive patent regulations that might allow for faster and better vaccine distribution, a move that developed countries have continued to block. India, a leading producer of generic drugs, and South Africa, which has been reportedly lagging in its vaccine rollout, lodged the proposal on Oct. 2, 2020 with the World Trade Organization (WTO). The proposal “for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19” requests a waiver from several provisions in the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), “such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information” so they “do not create barriers to the timely access to affordable medical products including vaccines […] essential to combat COVID-19”. India and Sou…