“The British Trade Minister has confirmed that corporate rights to sue governments are being discussed in the final negotiations for the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement before an announcement at the G7 meeting in the UK on June 11-13. This is unacceptable .
Pressure mounts on Australia to support Covid vaccine intellectual property waiver for developing nations Elias Visontay
Pressure is mounting on Australia to support waiver of intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines after the United States reversed its long held opposition to announce they will back the plan.
Australia is now one of the last countries not to have thrown its support behind the waiver proposal at the World Trade Organisation, after India and South Africa, who have led a global push for the waiver since October, agreed to revise their proposal after a key meeting on Friday.
The proposal to waive patent protections only for the duration of the pandemic has been supported by more than 100 countries, mostly lower and middle income nations, to allow them to manufacture and sell cheaper generic copies of vaccines to help achieve a quicker end to the global pandemic.
Gates doesn t believe in transferring vaccine tech to developing countries
The Microsoft co-founder answered with an emphatic no when the vaccine patent relaxation question was fielded to him during a
Sky News interview.
The logic backing the query being that transferring vaccine recipes to developing countries would not only accelerate localized production but also make it possible for poorer nations to inoculate more people with cheaper vaccines.
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Gates justifies stance by making this a safety, expertise issue There s only so many vaccine factories in the world and people are very serious about the safety. Moving a vaccine, say, from a factory into a factory in India, it s novel, it s only because of our grants and expertise that can happen at all, said Gates.
Bill Gates believes Covid 19 vaccine tech should not be given to India, what he said and why he said
Bill Gates believes Covid 19 vaccine tech should not be given to India, what he said and why he said it
Even though Gates cited security issues and said it would be too expensive to share the Covid 19 vaccine patents with developing countries, several reports have highlighted the profit-making aspect of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the face of the pandemic.
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(Picture: Reuters)
Bill Gates has refused to share Covid 19 vaccine tech with developing countries like India.
He cited security issues and said it would not be feasible to share Covid 19 vaccine patents with India.