The World Trade Organization’s Director General Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the potential for WTO members to reach long-delayed agreements on issues such as a limited IP waiver for COVID vaccines as well as a decision to curb harmful fisheries subsidies that allow big industrial rigs to plunder the oceans  […] Continue reading ->
The United States National Institute of Health (NIH) has finalized an agreement with WHO’s COVID-19 patent sharing facility (C-TAP) to share the patent rights on 11 government-funded coronavirus medicine and vaccine technologies – in what is perhaps the most significant agreement to date with WHO to share closely-guarded pharma know-how.   The announcement was made today […] Continue reading ->
Moderna has filed a brief in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware seeking the dismissal of a patent infringement lawsuit that pertains to the production and sale of its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine Spikevax.  The lawsuit against the U.S-based pharmaceutical giant was filed by Arbutus Biopharma Corporation and Genevant Sciences, which had […] Continue reading ->
In a significant breakthrough, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) TRIPS Council on Friday will finally discuss a compromise proposal on a waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights on COVID-19 vaccines – almost 18 months after it was first proposed by India and South Africa. Members attending an informal meeting of the TRIPS Council on Tuesday […] Continue reading ->
Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, a senior scientist at the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) has a vision that could be critical to halting the next pandemic – but is esoteric, difficult to organize and even more challenging to build the trust and buy-in needed to make it really work.  The vision is of a common clinical-trial […] Continue reading ->
A compromise proposal on a World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) waiver on intellectual property for the production of COVID-19 vaccines is ‘problematic’, ‘largely insufficient’, and WTO members should not be politically pressured into adopting the  text, several dozen civil society organisations said in an open letter published today.  The letter, addressed to European Commissioners, European members […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Director-Genera, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has “warmly welcomed” the breakthrough reached this week over a waiver on intellectual property for the production of COVID-19 vaccines. “This is a major step forward and this compromise is the result of many long and difficult hours of negotiations. But we are not there yet. […] Continue reading ->
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Friday called on Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and COVAX, the global COVID vaccine consortium to begin procuring African-made versions of vaccines for COVID and other diseases, as soon as a network of new African manufacturing facilities, now in the making, are in full production. He spoke in Brussels at an […] Continue reading ->
The German-based BioNTech, which co-developed with Pfizer an mRNA COVID vaccine, said on Wednesday that it will set up modular “turnkey” mRNA vaccine facilities to produce the vaccine in Rwanda and Senegal in 2022 – with a fill-and-finish collaboration in Ghana as well.  South Africa, which is the new hub for the WHO-supported mRNA vaccine […] Continue reading ->