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Coronavirus vaccines: why the world should support intellectual property right waivers
- India and South Africa’s proposal to the WTO to exempt countries from enforcing some patent and IP rights is a targeted and proportionate response to the exceptional public health emergency that the world faces today
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A proposal by India, South Africa and other countries is calling on the World Trade Organisation to exempt member countries from enforcing some patents and other intellectual property rights under the organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips), for a limited period of time. This is to ensure that IPRs do not restrict the rapid scaling-up of manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
Unprecedented times call for unorthodox measures. We saw this in the efficacy of strict lockdowns for a limited period, as a policy intervention, in curtailing the spread of the pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund in the October 2020 edition of its World Economic Outlook states that “the risk of worse growth outcomes than projected remains sizeable. If the virus resurges, progress on treatments and vaccines is slower than anticipated, or countries’ access to them remains unequal, economic activity could be lower than expected, with renewed social distancing and tighter lockdowns”.
The situation appears to be grimmer than predicted: we have already lost 7 per cent of economic output from the baseline scenario projected in 2019. It translates to a loss of more than US$6 trillion of global gross domestic product.

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Poor countries said to be left behind in Covid-19 vaccine race as rich nations get first doses
Poor countries said to be left behind in Covid-19 vaccine race as rich nations get first doses
Merely a signal to ensure timely and affordable access to vaccines and treatments will work as a big confidence booster for demand revival.
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