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India, South Africa and 60 other nations have revised the proposal for temporarily waiving Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection on the anti-Covid-19 vaccines and drugs and re-submitted it before the World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to address the concerns of the opponents. The governments co-sponsoring the proposal for the patent waiver at the WTO now suggested
consensus among member states. The European Commission
said it would begin discussions on waivers but Germany, home to BioNTech, the firm that created the vaccine being marketed by Pfizer, said it
opposed a waiver because “the protection of the intellectual property is a source of innovation and must remain so”.
However, the Indian government has taken a different line domestically: At a hearing in India’s Supreme Court this month, the court asked the government whether it intended to issue any compulsory licenses to companies to manufacture drugs like remdesivir that are being used for Covid-19 treatment.
The government reportedly
Wealthy nations must stop hoarding Covid vaccines and share them with poorer countries, a body representing the world s jab makers said today.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations called for immediate action to address the vaccine apartheid that has emerged.
It warned a stepping up of responsible dose sharing was the only way to end the global pandemic and prevent dangerous new variants from cropping up.
The body – which represents AstraZeneca and Pfizer – said manufacturers were on track to have produce 11billion doses by the end of this month, enough to fully vaccinate the world s adult population. Critically, however, Covid vaccines currently are not equally reaching all priority populations worldwide, the IFPMA added in a statement.
Read more about Patent waver for Covid vaccine without tech transfer won t speed up supply on Business Standard. Intellectual property rights (IPR) on drugs and vaccine formulae give creators an exclusive right over inventions for a certain period of time, and prevent pharmaceutical companies from making it.