Photo: Patient outside one of India’s largest hospitals for Coronavirus patients. Credit Ninian Reid
A deadly second wave of COVID-19 is raging through India. The country is seeing more than 3,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of cases every single day. At least 200,000 have died thus far. Modeling data shows that the death count is likely twice as high as the official numbers.
Hospitals in India are over capacity and in need of oxygen, personal protective equipment, beds, COVID-related medications, ventilators and other medical supplies. Crematorium workers are working around the clock burning body after body. Bodies are having to be burned on the roadside. There is no doubt that India’s poorest are facing the brunt of this crisis in a country with a severely underfunded public healthcare sector.
India, South Africa to review IP waiver proposal at WTO as US, EU refuse to comply
May 03, 2021
An official said that the EU, the UK have showed readiness to engage in further discussions - REUTERS
An official said that the EU, the UK have showed readiness to engage in further discussions - REUTERS×
To consult with opposing nations to find ‘middle ground’ With the pandemic continuing to affect human lives, South Africa, India and other co-sponsors, who had demanded a temporary waiver of the intellectual property (IP) provisions on medical products at the WTO, have said that they are ready to review their proposal in order to find a “common ground” with nations opposing it.
The U.S. is facing sustained calls to end its opposition of a proposal to temporarily lift intellectual property rules for Covid-19 vaccines and related technology as soaring coronavirus cases ravage India and new reporting spotlights a debate within the Biden administration over whether to support the patent suspension effort to help tackle the global pandemic or prioritize Big Pharma’s interests.
At issue, as the
Washington Postreported Friday, is a proposal India and South Africa submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) last October to suspend Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments to boost manufacturing capacity. It’s now cosponsored by 60 nations and backed by over 100 countries as well as hundreds of U.S. and international civil society organizations, former world world leaders and Nobel laureates, and some U.S. lawmakers.
The U.S. is facing sustained calls to end its opposition of a proposal to temporarily lift intellectual property rules for Covid-19 vaccines and related technology as soaring coronavirus cases ravage India and new reporting spotlights a debate within the Biden administration over whether to support the patent suspension effort to help tackle the global pandemic or prioritize Big Pharma’s interests.
At issue, as the
Washington Postreported Friday, is a proposal India and South Africa submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) last October to suspend Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments to boost manufacturing capacity. It’s now cosponsored by 60 nations and backed by over 100 countries as well as hundreds of U.S. and international civil society organizations, former world world leaders and Nobel laureates, and some U.S. lawmakers.
Civil society petition in SC for compulsory licence for vaccine, key Covid drugs
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“Covid-19 is a public health emergency and the government is obligated to issue an order of government authorisation under Section 100 or a compulsory licence for non-commercial public use under Section 92(1) of the Patents Act to respond and ensure continued access to the vaccines,” it said in the petition in which the government is the respondent.
Agencies
There is a shortage of Remdesivir, antiviral Favipiravir and immunosuppressant Tocilizumab in India which reported a record 3.86 lakh Covid-19 cases
Civil society organisation Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (Mumbai) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to issue compulsory licenses for a patent covering the drugs Remdesivir, Tocilizumab and Favipiravir, which are critical in the treatment of Covid-19 and to “rapidly upscale production”.