Vaccine Must Not Be Patented: Yunus

Nobel Laureate Says Covid-19 Vaccine Must Not Have Any Corporate Control Over It

- Times News Network

Hyderabad: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Thursday said that Covid-19 vaccine makers must follow the example of Jonas Salk, who did not patent the polio vaccine for the greater good of humankind.

“Declare the Covid vaccine as a ‘global common good’ and no one must hold patents or rights over it. And once the vaccine is developed, it should be allowed to be manufactured locally and in any part of the world and there should not be any corporate control or commercial control over the intellectual property (IP) of these vaccines,” he said while addressing participants virtually at the TiE Global Summit-2020 here on Thursday.

Yunus said that as the race for vaccine development intensifies, the rich ones have already started controlling capacities and many rich nations are booking more Covid vaccines. He pointed out that 10% of the people in the world, who are living in the rich countries, have booked a majority of the vaccine supplies as a result of which a majority of the world population will find it difficult to access vaccines in 2021.