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The AIDS fight offers a COVID vaccine patent pathway Updated: Updated: May 22, 2021 07:30 IST There are recognised ways to overcome the patents hurdle, ensuring social justice and boosting the COVID-19 battle Share Article AAA There are recognised ways to overcome the patents hurdle, ensuring social justice and boosting the COVID-19 battle In order to achieve global herd immunity and prevent new strains of COVID-19 from emerging, possibly for years to come, vaccines need to be affordable and...

After months of shameful right-wing stalling and delaying tactics, the European Parliament approved a resolution to tackle the AIDS epidemic which includes a Left demand for waiving intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines. The proposal championed by Left MEPs also demands the waiving of intellectual property rights for equipment and other treatments, urging pharmaceutical companies to share their knowledge and data through the World Health Organization COVID-19 Technology Access Pool ...

Africa should tackle failures in technology sharing Universities in Africa must be more vocal about the failures of higher education institutions in the Global North to challenge the status quo of innovation- and technology-sharing that is denying millions access to life-saving treatments, Sarai Keestra, a research coordinator of the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines in the United Kingdom has told University World News. In an e-mail exchange following a commentary she wrote in BMJ G...

BY FEMI FALANA The most telling lesson of the coronavirus pandemic is that “no one is safe until everyone is safe.” It is an indisputable proof of our biological connectedness which is even more consequential for life and livelihood than the digital connectivity that is the buzz word of the millennials. As it happens in any pandemic, the coronavirus does not respect geo-political boundaries; neither is it restricted by socio-economic and cultural divides. The virus infects the poor and the ...

By Parsa Erfani, Lawrence O. Gostin, and Vanessa Kerry May 19, 2021Reprints CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP via Getty Images The Biden administration’s announcement to support an intellectual property (IP) waiver for Covid-19 vaccines was a monumental step toward improving the access to them in low- and middle-income countries. But without further action, it will be little more than a symbol. The waiver allows companies to produce Covid-19 vaccines without fear of being sued by the entity that holds t...

Such calls are well intentioned. Countries like the US and the UK have surged ahead with their vaccinations, cutting their deaths and hospitalizations dramatically. Meanwhile, India is in the throes of a catastrophic second wave as it struggles to vaccinate its enormous population. Ive practiced patent law for 20 years. In that time Ive managed the worldwide patent portfolio for Prevnar 13, the worlds top-selling vaccine before COVID-19, before it was acquired by Pfizer. Ive worked with scienti...

More than 120 countries throughout the world have already done so.

Morals and vaccine market

At about 7:15 am PT this morning , May 13, 2021, I saw Dr. Mona Nemer’s (Canada’s Chief Science Advisor) tweet (Note: I’m sorry the formatting isn’t better, Maryse de la Giroday@frogheart Does this mean Canada will support a waiver on patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines? Dr. Mona Nemer@ChiefSciCanThe global health crisis of the past year has underscored the critical importance of openly sharing scientific information. We are one step closer to making #openscience a reality around the wo...

Lessons of the COVID-19 Pandemic For Our Collective Humanity, By Femi Falana The sad story is that of the resurgence of vaccine nationalism, with all its perils for our shared humanity. In sum, the response to the crisis should, therefore, be based on the principles of compassion, cooperation and multilateralism. In fact, apart from the pandemic, other global issues such as climate change, social inequality, drugs and identity crisis require cooperation and multilateral approaches because they ...