Monday 10 May 2021 - 3:07pm
President Cyril Ramaphosa.
GCIS
PRETORIA - President Cyril Ramaphosa is calling on civil society to support efforts to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents.
South Africa and India are petitioning the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
The US government is supporting the proposal.
In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa says this will add much-needed impetus for wider access to technologies that are needed to produce vaccines.
Source
COVID-19: Pope Francis backs vaccine patents waiver ANI | Updated: May 09, 2021 11:14 IST
Rome [Italy], May 9 (ANI): Pope Francis has backed growing calls for a patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines in a video message for a public concert on Saturday.
Pope has called for universal access to vaccines and the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights, CNN reported.
This comes after the United States extended its support for waiving intellectual property protections on vaccines to help end the pandemic. Other countries and blocs including European Union too have shown willingness to discuss the temporary waiver of patents.
India and South Africa had proposed a TRIPS waiver at the WTO last year, recently US President Joe Biden-led administration had lent support to the waiver. The EU however has not taken a position and does not see it as a magic solution .
updated: May 09 2021, 16:18 ist
India, South Africa and other developing countries are likely to push for a wider waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 drugs and medical tools after US President Joe Biden and Trade Representative Katherine Tai backed their call to waive off intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines.
India and South Africa had submitted a joint proposal to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), touching upon the broad areas of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver they were seeking. The revised draft is likely to go into further detail on the coverage and duration of the waiver, which could be longer than originally anticipated, according to a report by
While these
have been on, COVID-19 vaccines have been unequally distributed around the world. Rich countries signed agreements to buy up the bulk when vaccines were still being developed. Many players are involved in the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines countries and their governments; research institutions such as Oxford University; and pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax and the Serum Institute of India. Global alliances have also been participating in the process, such as GAVI, which is a global alliance facilitating vaccine production and distribution, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations or CEPI, and COVAX, an alliance specifically to coordinate distribution of COVID-19 vaccines that is led by GAVI ad CEPI. The Gates Foundation helped set up both GAVI and CEPI, and had contributed to funding COVAX.