Health Equality For All
India Legal|May 24, 2021
A US plan to waive IP protections for Covid-19 vaccines could see more of them being produced. But Germany, the EU Commission and leading pharma companies are up in arms and WTO will have to sort it out
Saju Jakob
Health Equality For All

EXTRAORDINARY situations demand extraordinary decisions. In the face of the devastating pandemic, the US proposal to remove patent protection for Covid-19 vaccines has significant implications for vaccine production as a whole.

On May 5, 2021, US President Joe Biden mooted the idea of a temporary suspension of patent protection of Covid-19 vaccines. The new US government has projected an image of it being a messiah of health equality by taking the side of poorer countries and many international aid organisations. It wants pharmaceutical companies to temporarily waive proprietary intellectual protection of their corona vaccines. Resultantly, manufacturers all over the world could produce the vaccines without paying license fees to big pharma giants like Pfizer. Influential Democrats, including Vice-President Kamla Harris, have supported this idea of global health equity to end the crisis.

Biden’s move has been met with dismay by Germany, the EU Commission and leading pharmaceutical companies. Manufacturing countries have signalled their willingness for an open dialogue and discussion with WTO in the light of the radical change in the stand of the US government.

So far, the US and several other countries, along with vaccine manufacturers at WTO, had blocked a plan promoted by India and South Africa to enable greater vaccine production in developing countries by restricting the intellectual property rights only to giant pharmaceutical companies.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 24, 2021 من India Legal.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 24, 2021 من India Legal.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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