Calls intensify for Big Pharma to break monopolies on Covid-19 vaccines
On February 25, Ivory Coast became the second country after Ghana to receive vaccines acquired through the UN-backed COVAX initiative with a delivery of 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Pressure is mounting on countries to suspend intellectual property rules to help vaccines reach more people, especially in poorer countries, as quickly as possible. Can the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization break the deadlock?
This content was published on March 4, 2021 - 09:00
March 4, 2021 - 09:00
Last week Ghana became the first country to receive vaccine doses under COVAX – the vaccine pooling system that aims to ensure 20% of the population in every country receive vaccines. The first jabs in Ghana were a positive sign that rich countries won’t swallow up all the vaccines before the rest of the w
Cut cost of doing business to compete in post-LDC era
Says CPD at a dialogue Star Business Report Star Business Report
Bangladesh needs to reduce the cost of doing business locally to be more competitive globally in the post-LDC era as the country will face duties on exports because of the erosion of trade privileges, said a noted economist yesterday.
Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), speaks at a dialogue on “Moving out from the LDC group: Strategies for graduation with momentum”, organised by the CPD yesterday. Photo: Collected Local businessmen will have to be facilitated by offsetting costs in the domestic markets so that they can remain competitive in the international markets even after graduation from the LDC, said Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Calls intensify for Big Pharma to break monopolies on Covid-19 vaccines swissinfo.ch - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from swissinfo.ch Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The delay will undoubtedly cost countless lives and risk future, potentially dangerous mutations of the Covid-19 virus. The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, initial tests showed, is far less effective against the Covid-19 variant that has spread rapidly through South Africa, for example. A prolonged pandemic will also threaten to extend and exacerbate a global economic downturn.
In response, governments around the world are considering a temporary exemption to traditional intellectual property rights in order to rapidly produce coronavirus treatments at low cost, a demand intensely opposed by American lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry.
The push by foreign governments to unilaterally set the price and pace of production of coronavirus vaccines, drug lobbyists with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, or BIO, argued, will place “American jobs and the workers who rely on them at risk, and impede scientific advances from reaching society.”
India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative earns praise at WTO
March 03, 2021
Caribbean countries, ACP group ask other vaccine-producing nations to improve supplies India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ drive is reaping diplomatic benefits for the country with the 79-member African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) group and the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) praising India at the WTO for facilitating vaccine supplies to those in need. These countries also suggested that other vaccine-producing countries should also follow suit.
“We thank the governments of India and South Africa as well as the African Union for their generosity and solidarity at this time. The government of India, through the generosity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has donated an initial instalment of 170,000 vaccines to Barbados and Dominica through bilateral arrangements. We thank our sister CARICOM member states Barbados and Dominica for having shared the initial supplies from India with other CARICOM member