![]() Estimates suggest it could take up to seven years to vaccinate three-fourths of the world’s estimated 7.8 billion people.Īs the global south grapples with the challenges of accessing Covid 19 supplies, India can play a crucial role in delivering the urgently needed vaccines given its large, well-developed existing infrastructure and supply chains. The WTO led donor-funded COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility aims to distribute 2 billion doses to 92 poorer subscribing countries, but only by the end of 2021. Seychelles secured China’s Sinopham vaccine, Mauritius received a 100,000-dose donation of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines from India, while Guinea received all but 55 doses of Russia’s Sputnik vaccine for a population of more than 12 million. As of 3 February, only four African countries have begun vaccinating their populations: Seychelles, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. Indeed, the rollout in Africa has been particularly paltry. Amidst the recent vaccine row between the EU and UK over AstraZeneca’s vaccine supply, EU Commission official Martin Selmayr infamously celebrated the EU outstripping vaccination rates of nearly 12 million people in three weeks compared to the 20,000 people vaccinated in Africa, and the 128 countries who had not even started vaccinating. In the meantime, poor countries continue to struggle to access vaccines. ![]() However, the proposal, to be used as an extreme measure, has been fiercely opposed by the EU, UK, and US, who claim that such a waiver would stifle innovation in pharma companies by robbing them of incentives to invest in R&D. It is worth mentioning that Moderna has already waived its (mRNA) vaccines and therapeutics patent rights during the pandemic period. Nearly twenty years ago, the Doha Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) declaration allowed similarly demanded flexibilities to facilitate access to medicines during the HIV/AIDS global epidemic. ![]() ![]() The IP waiver would allow drug makers in these countries to mass-produce COVID 19 vaccines inexpensively for timely and affordable access. In October 2020, India and South Africa solicited the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily suspend intellectual property (IP) rules related to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments including patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information. Rich western countries (the European Union (EU), UK and US) along with Japan have not only hoarded the most effective vaccines in quantities up to four times their populations or 4.2 billion doses in total (so far, all of Moderna’s doses and 90% of Pfizer/BioNTech’s), but are also blocking countries like India and South Africa from producing the same COVID-19 vaccines and drugs indigenously to meet global demand. Gauri Khandekar is a researcher at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.Īs the worldwide COVID-19 death toll hit more than 2.3 million people, western vaccine nationalism has emerged as the largest impediment to global efforts at overcoming the Covid-19 crisis. While Western vaccine nationalism condemns the world to a lose-lose situation, India, the pharmacy of the developing world, has clearly the potential to come to the rescue, writes Gauri Khandekar.
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