WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hopes for a final deal by June.

South Africa and India have called for intellectual property rights to be temporarily lifted for Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic but the idea has met with fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants and their host countries.

The WTO says all countries agree on the need to ramp up production quickly, but disagree on how best to achieve the goal.

They say they have been shortchanged for the past three decades, sometimes getting as little as RM13 per year for their creative property.

It is calling for compulsory licensing deals rather than suspending patents.

Agreements at the WTO require the consensus backing of all 164 member states.

Calls continue for an end to monopoly control on vaccine technology in order to boost production and push down prices.

World Trade Organization boss Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is set to meet EU trade ministers for talks in Brussels.

He says this will enable the production of cheaper, generic versions of life-saving medicines for critical diseases, from Covid-19 to HIV/AIDS.

Concerns are raised about geopolitical interests, in addition to the unequal distribution of vaccine doses.

NGOs and advocacy groups say the local pharmaceutical industry can help but need the freedom to operate that a WTO waiver could speed up.

India's Serum Institute offers a good example of overcoming the problem of vaccine exclusivity during the current health emergency.