Proposed COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Waiver Making Slow Progress

The Push for an IP Waiver

Vaccinating the world is a monumental task.  The key leaders, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca have made tremendous progress in developing and scaling up vaccines in a record time.  It was not possible to produce billions of doses in a matter of months, so when the COVID-19 vaccine shortage became apparent, certain interest groups blamed patents as impeding full use of global vaccine manufacturing and supply chains. To ostensibly broaden manufacturing capacity and access to vaccines and other COVID-19-related technologies, India and South Africa submitted a proposal¹ to the World Trade Organization in October 2020 to waive certain rights and enforcement provisions of the TRIPS agreement.