07 May Patent waiver on vaccine

(GS PAPER,3 DISEASES 

SOURCE- SCIENCE REPORTER)

 Context

The US supports waving patents on covid-19 nothing because doing away with intellectual property rights will pave the way for a cheaper version of the vaccine to enter the market and scale-up production.

Key highlights of the scheme

•  India has been leading a post from lower and middle income countries at the world trade organisation to do away patents on vaccine against COVID
• WHO in March 2021  called for vaccine patent rights to be waived until the end of pandemic stating that these and unprecedented time warrant the move
• The demand had also been raised by human right bodies and global advocacy group
• However the open call issued by WHO health authority very little expression of interest from the owners of vaccine technology and intellectual property rights

Significance of patents on waving patents on vaccines:

• Allow the recipes to be shared and there will longer be an embargo – basically was the formula shared any company which possesses the required technology and infrastructure can produce vaccine
• This will lead to cheaper and more generic versions of COVID vaccines
•  As many people across India are struggling to get vaccines and shortages are being reported from many states there is need to scale a production and equitable distribution of the vaccine doses available
•  Inequitable distribution of vaccines have opened upgrading gap between developing and developed countries with poor relations that continue to pay shortages and have overburdened Healthcare system and hundreds dying daily
•  Unless we  vaccinate the world  we leave the playing field open to more and more mutations which would turn out variant that could read our current vaccines and required booster shots to deal with them

-Khyati Khare

Download Daily Current Affairs of 07th May 2021