Global Initiative to Patent Waiver On Covid-19 Vaccines
Siddharth Verma | Updated: Nov 04, 2021 | Category: Patent
As we all know that how covid-19 a “deadly pandemic” spread all around the world, and the rate of infection and fatality due to it caused major cause of concern in respect of the health of the people. The whole world is witnessing how important it is to provide the free vaccine of Covid-19 to all the people for better immunization and better health. Even the world health organization mandates compulsory vaccination for all. Although, the major cause of concern in respect of the availability of the covid-19 vaccine is the bottleneck globally.
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A Call For Harmony To Ease Vaccine Drive Globally
A global initiative to Patent waiver on covid-19 vaccines is the need of the hour; this initiative was taken by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO)[1], arguing that waiving the patents on vaccines will help to combat the rate of infection with the help of one step further to waive off the patent rights on vaccines to lower the fatality rate. This initiative has been appreciated by the other nations, and many of them are ready to collaborate with this initiative for the sake of humanity. Countries like Russia, China and the United States came forward to support this proposal, and the USA became the first country that supported this idea of waiving the patent on Covid-19 vaccines.
Why there is a need for a Patent Waiver on Covid-19 Vaccines?
Many Countries are stressing on the global initiative to patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines with the objective to create the roadmap for the under developing and developing countries so that they can get full access to set up the manufacturing unit for the production of vaccines at their home. Although, some Pharmaceutical companies opposed this initiative of the patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines stating the reason that “developing and mostly under developing countries does not have the required infrastructure, lack of technical expertise and required resources to manufacture vaccines and also it will take years to manufacture vaccine”.
Conclusion
The global initiative on patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines is the idea of achieving the milestone to reduce and combat the adverse effect of covid-19. A patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines will help the countries to manufacture vaccines in their own country. This is the one step further to save the life of the people and provide access to proper vaccination to achieve herd immunity. Although, some pharmaceutical companies do not support this initiative due to the lack of required resources, technical experts, inventors and proper infrastructure in poor countries.
Read our article:What are the Different Types of Pharmaceutical Patents?
