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Showing posts with the label poor countries

Suspending IP rights is the way to go if world wants Covid-19 vaccine fast

  Otherwise, there won’t be enough shots to go around, even in rich countries As some reports would have it, this is the beginning of the end. Three coronavirus vaccines have posted excellent results, with more expected to come. But this is not the beginning of the end; it is only the beginning of an endless wait: There aren’t enough vaccines to go around in the richest countries on earth, let alone the poorest ones. That’s why it makes little sense that the United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, are blocking a proposal at the World Trade Organization that would allow them, and the rest of the world, to get more of the  Coronavirus vaccines  and treatments we all need. The proposal, put forward by India and South Africa in October, calls on the WTO to exempt member countries from enforcing some patents, trade secrets or pharmaceutical monopolies under the organisation’s agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, known as TRIPs. It cites...