Covid-19 Vaccines - Patent waiver Debate

"A patent waiver refers to the government’s waiver of rights in an invention arising from DOE-funded research so that private entities may expedite commercialization, quickly bringing their technologies from lab to market. There are three types of waivers: Advance, Identified, and Class patent waivers."

Are Covid-19 Vaccines under patent protection?

yes, all vaccines and pharmaceutical drugs included in orange book are under a patent protection.

And what are patent waivers for COVID vaccines?

An initiative was started by India and South Africa at the "World Trade Organization" to impose a waiver on the patent of COVID-19 vaccines and on the medicines related products that are used for the treatment of that viral disease. The purpose of this initiative was to give permission and authority to more countries around the globe to manufacture the doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Patent waivers for covid-19 vaccines is defined as the suspension on the intellectual property rights, i.e., suspension of the patent rights temporarily to deal with the global pandemic. However, some countries have opposed this initiative. “It’s such a chaotic situation"

Rich and wealthier countries have the resources and technology to manage and manufacture most of the COVID-19 vaccines. Since many countries do have the resources, but they don't own the technology, so they cannot make or produce COVID-19 vaccine by using the techniques from rich countries due to the patent rights and IP rights (mRNA technology). Hence, these countries are unable to fight with this pandemic.

"Well, my belief is that we need to have a comprehensive programme. One is, of course, to address the problems of intellectual property and I support the initiative that was taken by South Africa and by India in relation to TRIPS, waving TRIPS regulations in the context of the World Trade Organization," Guterres said during a press conference at the G7 Summit in London on Friday.

The UN has explicitly warned us that this inequality between the nations on the vaccines, would lead to a huge rise in COVID-19 cases and its variants.

Many activists and groups named “awaz” have protested to break the wall of patent protection and contacted the EU regarding the " COVID-19 waiver”, to stop the opposition, so that more and more vaccines are manufactured.

WTO's have scheduled a "ministerial council meeting" on 30 November through the 3rd of December, to discuss the issue and negotiation relative to the patent waivers.

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Note: This information has been taken from the list of different countries and is not intended as legal advice. This will give you a general idea about what exactly a patent is. We recommend you to consult a lawyer if you want legal advice for your particular situation.