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“It is shameful that U.S. policy is prioritizing profits over life, and doing so in the name of the American people,” Emily Sanderson, senior grassroots advocacy coordinator for the activist group Health GAP, said in a statement.
The pharmaceutical industry says patents are not the biggest barriers, however. Supplies and expertise are the major limitations, executives say. But the industry says novel partnerships already in place will meet the demand for vaccines.
Vaccine rollout has been highly unequal so far. While deliveries are accelerating in many higher-income countries, “there’s over 100 countries where not a single (dose of) vaccine has been delivered,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Global Health Policy & Politics Initiative.
“It is shameful that U.S. policy is prioritizing profits over life, and doing so in the name of the American people,” Emily Sanderson, senior grassroots advocacy coordinator for the activist group Health GAP, said in a statement.
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The United States and other wealthy members of the World Trade Organization have blocked a push by dozens of developing countries to waive patent rights in an effort to boost production of COVID-19 vaccines for poor nations. The proposal by South Africa and India was supported by hundreds of civil society organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and Amnesty International. Without the waiver, vaccine production will remain in the hands of only a few pharmaceutical companies. “Millions of us are basically going to have to wait for a vaccine, putting global immunity, as well as regional immunity, particularly in Africa, at severe risk,” says South African activist Fatima Hassan, founder and director of Health Justice Initiative. We also speak with Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa. He says one of the barriers t
Prime minister urged to waive patents in bid to widen access to Covid vaccines
Enabling manufacturers in poorer countries to make vaccines is a moral, epidemiological and economic imperative , campaigners say
10 March 2021 • 5:00am
Employees at India s Serum Institute which has manufactured AstraZeneca jabs
Credit: Punit Paranjpe/AFP
A coalition of business people, economists, academics and trade unionists have written to the prime minister, asking him to back a proposal by 100 low and middle income countries to waive intellectual property rights on Covid vaccines.
The proposal, led by India and South Africa, is to be discussed at a World Trade Organization meeting on Thursday and Friday but has so far been blocked by richer countries including the UK, United States and the European Union.