The Latest Draft for a COVID-19 IP Waiver is a “Disaster”

In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a landmark intellectual property waiver at the World Trade Organisation to temporarily waive patents related to COVID-19 diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for as long as the pandemic rages on. While this has been backed by more than a 100 governments, progress has been blocked - unsurprisingly - by a handful of wealthy countries. Now with many countries across the globe with high vaccination rates and beginning to treat COVID-19 as endemic, you might ask why such a waiver is still needed. Here to answer that question and the problems exposed by a recently leaked draft of the proposal is Chee Yoke Ling, the executive director of the Third World Network.

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