South Africa remains steadfast in its demands for a waiver that will enable developing countries to manufacture vaccines, Trade Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel said on Thursday as talks entered the fifth day at the World Trade Organisation WTO, amid objections from pharmaceutical companies and some developed countries.
Waiving patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines and drugs is still crucial to ensure access globally, but the waiver on the table at the June World Trade Organization meeting doesn’t do the job.
Russia’s disregard of IP owned by ‘unfriendly’ countries will leave its people unsatisfied, say Anton Koval and Valeriya Sokolova of Doubinsky & Osharova in Ukraine.
A group of South African academics and the international NGO Doctors Without Borders have urged member countries in the World Trade Organization to resume negotiations after a leaked document detailing a compromise in waiving patents for Covid-19 vaccines surfaced.