Rights waiver will make the world safer
Leaders of the G7 nations must use this week’s summit to agree a temporary waiver of the intellectual property (IP) rights for the coronavirus vaccine to allow more of the world’s population to be vaccinated and quickly, says UNISON today (Thursday).
The G7 nations, whose members include the UK, Canada, Germany and the US, have so far failed to reach agreement on a proposal made last year by India and South Africa to the World Trade Organisation.
This proposal sought to bypass the monopoly held by the pharmaceutical giants over the vaccine market, by temporarily waiving their IP rights.
Rosa Pavanelli
Earlier this month, European Union leaders met in Portugal to ‘reinvigorate’ their commitment to social rights and affirm the importance of ‘European unity and solidarity in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic’. Yet the EU’s continued opposition to the suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines and supplies demonstrates a stunning lack of solidarity and makes such declarations appear little more than hot air.
Many campaigners now view the EU as Big Pharma’s biggest lobbyist at the G20. If European leaders are serious about ‘ensuring no one is left behind’, it’s time to join the World Health Organization, health-worker unions, Joe Biden’s administration in the United States and the majority of the world’s governments in pushing for a Covid-19 patent waiver at the World Trade Organization so we can ramp up production of vaccines and supplies, ensure equal access and finally end these lockdowns.
If EU blocks vaccine waivers, it can drop 'solidarity' talk euobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from euobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This story originally appeared on StockMarket
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