On Saturday, South Africa welcomed the temporary waiver of the WHO antitrust vaccine patents announced yesterday, an agreement reached after “hard fightև required about two years.
«We got a deal after a hard fight“At a press conference in Johannesburg, the country’s Minister of Commerce, Ibrahim Patel, announced that he, along with Indian NGOs, demanded the abolition of the intellectual property rights of all anti-drug devices.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) announced an agreement on the abolition of rights between 164 member states after marathon talks on Friday, but was immediately criticized for being limited in vaccines at the time.
Since the outbreak, South Africa and India have repeatedly condemned the unequal availability of expensive doses, known as “vaccine apartheid.”
According to the WHO, 60% of the world’s population has received two doses, but the situation is still unfair, as only 17% are vaccinated in Libya, 8% in Nigeria or even less than 5% in Cameroon.
The agreement, which allows local manufacturers to produce vaccines or ingredients without a patent, is limited to five years and currently excludes tests and expensive therapies against Covid. The WHO must make a decision within six months.
While welcoming thisstep forward», The South African government said in a statement on Thursday that “Other partnerships will be needed, particularly with the availability of know-how և technologies«.
Another challenge will be marketing. South African pharmaceutical giant Aspen, which has begun producing and marketing Covid vaccines in the country following a deal with US-based Johnson & Johnson (J&J), said last month it was in danger of shutting down the project due to a lack of orders.
«Our focus now is on meeting demand by persuading global vaccine suppliers from African manufacturers.said Mr. Patel.
This is the first case when the WTO has decided to suspend it temporarily. South Africa currently has three vaccine factories with Aspen, Afrigen Biotechnology in Cape Town, which developed the first courier RNA vaccine against Covid-19, and Biovac, which assembles the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Source: Le Figaro
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