UK government must share vaccine intellectual property rights to prevent thousands of deaths

The British government must waive intellectual property (IP) rights for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to save thousands of lives and prevent unnecessary suffering, says UNISON today (Monday). Currently, under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS), pharmaceutical companies that create a coronavirus vaccine hold the exclusive rights to produce them. This means they can dominate the markets, setting prices without any competition. UNISON is calling on the British government to support the proposal put forward by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation. It asks for the IP rights of pharmaceutical giants to be waived so any country can create and supply vaccines at cost price, to protect the maximum number of people. Currently the UK, European Union, USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea are all blocking the move. It’s estimated that one-in-four people in wealthy nations have received a Covid jab, compared to one in more than one-in-500 people for lower income countries*. Denying access to mass vaccinations will mean the virus continues to mutate, threatening everyone’s recovery, says UNISON. The union’s general secretary Christina McAnea will be addressing the Labour L7 conference today (Monday) in a bid to gain consensus for the waiver, ahead of the G7 summit in June. UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “The NHS has done an incredible job vaccinating around 46 million people again...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: News Press release Covid vaccine Source Type: news