-Newsclick.in The recent agreements between Medicine Patent Pool and Big Pharma are being projected as benevolent gestures from pharma companies in sharing their patented technologies with other countries. The fact is it is working towards cementing its monopoly power further. The development of anti-viral oral pills to combat COVID-19 will, hopefully, make the fight against the pandemic more promising. While Merck has developed the anti-viral pill Molnupiravir, Pfizer has come up with...

-The Hindu There are recognised ways to overcome the patents hurdle, ensuring social justice and boosting the COVID-19 battle In order to achieve global herd immunity and prevent new strains of COVID-19 from emerging, possibly for years to come, vaccines need to be affordable and available in massive quantities throughout the globe. This can happen through patent owners voluntarily licensing their products to other companies, especially Indian producers who are experienced at...

-The Indian Express Innovation in vaccine production can have an impact only if it is accessible to all. Patents and access to life-saving drugs has always been an emotive and contentious issue. The right to healthy life is a moral minimum, and to find a rational basis to deny it is deeply offensive to the idea of life itself. At the same time, pharma corporations and institutions claim patents are a just...

-The Hindu A statement issued by the PMO stated that Mr. Modi discussed India’s initiative at the WTO for relaxation in TRIPS agreement Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden had a telephone conversation on Monday with assurances exchanged on smoothening out issues related to supply chains for vaccines for COVID-19 and the latter affirming that the U.S. would be supporting India’s efforts to come to grips with the massive...

-The Hindu They seek waiver on some provisions of world agreements that regulate intellectual property rights to expedite steps to contain pandemic India and South Africa, in a formal submission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on October 2, sought a waiver on certain provisions of the international agreements that regulate intellectual property rights to speed up efforts to prevent, treat and contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In the communication, the countries said there...