Vaccinating Billions Means Finding Ways Around a Patent Impasse
India’s proposed WTO waiver faces stiff opposition from the U.S. and EU. But pressure is growing on vaccine producers to make concessions to ensure billions get inoculated.
According to Oxfam, nine out of 10 people in underdeveloped countries will miss out on a vaccine in 2021.
Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/BloombergCovid-19 vaccines look set to protect millions of citizens of the world’s richest countries in the coming months. But inoculating the rest of the planet’s population may mean finding a way around an impasse over intellectual property.
Representatives from all 164 member states of the World Trade Organization met last week in Geneva to discuss a proposal from India and South Africa to waive broad sections of the WTO’s intellectual property rules and to try to forge an agreement on how patents developed in the race against Covid-19 should be recognized.