Waiving patents alone won't solve COVID-19 vaccine access: developers

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labelled with a “Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) – Waiving intellectual property rights will not be enough to resolve COVID-19 vaccine access issues, the developers of the Oxford/Astrazeneca and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines said on Monday, ahead of a meeting on the topic at the World Trade Organization this week.

“I don’t think just making IP fully available goes anywhere close to solving the problem…,” said the University of Oxford professor Sarah Gilbert at a World Health Organization virtual press conference.

BioNTech’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Özlem Türeci said at the same briefing: “Patents are one thing, but there are so many other things we have to ensure.”

Source: Read Full Article

Related posts:
  1. Pfizer study deals new blow to South Africa's vaccine hopes
  2. First Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to Africa under COVAX go to Rwanda
  3. South Africa puts AstraZeneca vaccinations on hold over variant data
  4. Congo confirms two new Ebola cases, including one far from centre of outbreak
  5. Inovio developing vaccines to target coronavirus variants