World Trade Organization (WTO) strongly supports TRIPS waiver to Covid-19 vaccines
NEWS
World Trade Organization (WTO) strongly supports TRIPS waiver to Covid-19 vaccines
By Pallavi Paul
WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan on 11th May, 2021 said that they completely support the TRIPS waiver to Covid-19 vaccines and that the proposal for TRIPS waiver initiated by India and South Africa, should be done quickly as this is not the time to worry about patents and profits. As it can take a long time for a company to learn from scratch the process-making of vaccines, WTO also needs to be accompanied by a technology transfer to implement the vaccine waiver at the earliest. This technology-transfer needs to be done voluntarily by companies without waiting for the official declaration of the waiver.
NEWS
By Pallavi Paul
India and South Africa had filed for waiver of certain TRIPS provisions for prevention, containment and treatment of Covid-19 last year in October. Some member countries had opposed this idea of vaccine waiver, due to which it had made little progress, till date. The only way to combat the Covid-19 pandemic successfully is massive global vaccination which can only happen when the production of vaccines is ramped up.