World mulls next step as US backs IP waiver on vaccines
Jamey Keaten
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FILE - In this April 8, 2021, file photo, a Northwell Health registered nurses fills a syringe with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccination site at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in the Staten Island borough of New York. The Biden administration on Wednesday, May 5, joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
May 06, 2021
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The real deal will be when negotiations eventually begin to frame the context within which waivers are allowed
The public health universe has been abuzz ever since the US administration expressed its support to a waiver proposal on Covid-19 vaccines.
The proposal initially made by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) involved temporarily suspending intellectual property (IP) on Covid-19 linked medicines, diagnostics and vaccines, for the pandemic period. And it still requires support from all other WTO members.
‘Clarity’
The “real deal”, though, will be when negotiations eventually begin to frame the context within which waivers are allowed and outlining for how long it would be allowed, say IP experts. Clarity is also required on whether this support is only for vaccines or for other health technologies as well.
US backs waiving intellectual property rules on Covid vaccines; world mulls next step
Updated May 06, 2021;
Posted May 06, 2021
FILE - In this April 8, 2021, file photo, a Northwell Health registered nurses fills a syringe with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccination site at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in the Staten Island borough of New York.AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
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GENEVA (AP) Activists cheered, Big Pharma complained and government leaders assessed next steps on Thursday after the Biden administration’s blockbuster move to support an easing of patent and other protections on COVID-19 vaccines that many hope will help poorer countries get more doses and speed the end of the pandemic.
US backs plan to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents
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WASHINGTON, May 6, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – US President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced support for a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, offering hope to poor nations that have struggled to access the life-saving doses.
India, where the death toll hit a new daily record amid fears the peak is still to come, has been leading the fight within the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow more drugmakers to manufacture the vaccines a move pharma giants oppose.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that while intellectual property rights for businesses are important, Washington “supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines” in order to end the pandemic.
Calls for drug companies to share vaccine formulas grow as global COVID crisis worsens By Haley Ott Inside look at India s COVID crisis
As India registered nearly 400,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, the vaccination centers in its wealthiest city, Mumbai, were shuttered all weekend. There weren t any vaccine doses available to give.
While some of the world s wealthiest nations move closer to mass immunity, dozens of low- and middle-income countries have been left clamoring for scarce coronavirus vaccines and treatments as death tolls soar.
Infectious disease experts have warned for months that allowing the virus to spread and mutate unchecked in any population poses a threat to people everywhere, because a variant could emerge with resistance to existing vaccines. That threat, along with the fundamental concern for human life, has fueled increasing calls to waive intellectual property rights around vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. The Biden admi