-The Hindu They write to Prime Minister asking him to renegotiate the draft proposal to waive intellectual property rights on vaccines and highlight the need for active engagement to improve it A group of non governmental organisations has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to prod the Union Commerce Ministry into “proactively engaging” with a draft proposal at the World Trade Organisation-TRIPS in Geneva to waive intellectual property rights, mostly controlled by...
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Experts write to PM against WTO proposal on COVID-19 vaccine waivers -Jacob Koshy
-The Hindu “The current version of the text added new burdensome conditions that would impose additional limits on countries using non-voluntary licensing” Six experts from India, South Africa and the United States have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the current version of a proposal at the World Trade Organisation on intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 medicines, that includes vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. In October 2020, at the WTO’s Trade Related...
More »‘Compromise’ on TRIPS waiver is a sellout -Latha Jishnu
-Down to Earth Tough new conditions emerge in the compromise deal to ease WTO intellectual property barriers to production of COVID-19 medical tools We are back to square one. Back to the beginning after 18 months of a wearying, tortuous series of negotiations that carried on while millions of lives hung in the balance — and still do. The waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights on medicines, vaccines and diagnostics to fight the...
More »COVID Vaccines: Where Does India Truly Stand on the TRIPS Waiver? -Priti Patnaik
-TheWire Science * The Indian government has consistently discouraged compulsory licenses on generic drugs. * One of the big questions the India government has not answered is why it isn’t using pharma PSUs to produce drugs and vaccines. * Not one member of Indian industry is willing to stand up and fight for compulsory licenses, and for patients, says lawyer Murali Neelakantan. India has played a crucial role in supporting South Africa, as a...
More »Six-fold increase in people suffering famine-like conditions since pandemic began
-Press release by Oxfam dated 9th July, 2021 11 people are likely dying every minute from hunger, now outpacing COVID-19 fatalities, warns Oxfam A new Oxfam report today says that as many as 11 people are likely dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute. This is more than the current global death rate of COVID-19, which is around seven people per minute. The report, ‘The Hunger Virus Multiplies’ says that conflict remains the...
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