Patent rights on COVID drugs, vaccines must be waived off; govt needs to revive public sector pharma firms

As the world is passing through a serious crisis of COVID pandemic, vaccination seems to be the only answer to deal with it. The process has to be carried out simultaneously at the global level if we have to achieve an early end to the pandemic. This is important because in this highly interconnected world, movement of people from one country to another cannot be stopped for very long.

Whereas the developed countries have been able to vaccinate a substantial number of their population, most of the developing countries are finding it hard to procure the vaccines in required numbers. The affluent countries booked the vaccines very early. Under the circumstances, several developing countries including India are unable to get the vaccines now from the companies in other countries.

It is also important to note that maximum number of people should be vaccinated in a short span of time. If the gap of time is too large, then the people vaccinated in the early stages may lose the immunity due to vaccination by the time next lot of people is vaccinated. This would defeat the purpose of obtaining herd immunity which is expected to be reached if 60% - 70% population is vaccinated.

The high cost and unavailability of medicines for COVID patients is another serious issue of concern. It is highly distressing to see people running from pillar to post in search of oxygen and essential medicines that could save the life of a COVID patient.

In this connection, the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) on 24th May 2021 called for a concrete action plan and coordinated strategies to control the pandemic.

The WHA statement said that “where countries have struggled to implement effective COVID-19 control, political leadership has often undermined the critical role of skilled frontline professionals. The greatest success has been achieved between the government, professionals, trade unions, and communities working together with a high level of mutual trust. Where this has occurred there has been an important increased control of the virus allowing countries to resume freedoms and functional economies”.

The WHA in the statement called on World Health Organization (WHO) and its member states to take action to:

--Ensure that treatments and vaccines are available to everyone everywhere. This requires establishing multidisciplinary engagement with local up to cross-borders social protection systems to reach all people.

--Transform COVAX into a COVID-19 Solidarity Pooling Platform, enabling knowledge sharing as well as boosting production capacity under a public health-driven alliance of vaccine manufacturers, dedicated to research, development, manufacturing, and supply of high-quality, efficient, safe and sustainable vaccines and treatments.

--Increase preparedness including health literacy while decreasing vulnerability to future pandemics through reducing health and social inequalities that have undermined the current interventions in controlling this pandemic.

--Establish a clear partnership between the politicians and the health, social, and trade unions’ professionals to build public trust and engagement.

The statement which has been signed by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, World Federation of Public Health Associations, International Federation on Ageing, International Hospital Federation, World Organization of Family Doctors, World Federation of Occupational Therapists, International League of Dermatological Societies called on member states to build their strategies on a human rights-based approach to guarantee equal access to the highest attainable standard of health, to build concrete, healthy, socially equitable, and environmentally sustainable solutions for the short and long term.

It is important that the developing countries get to produce medicines and vaccines on their own at affordable costs. There was a time when India was hub of cheap medicines supply not only to developing countries but also countries in Europe. But after the introduction of TRIPS under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the situation changed entirely.

Members of the WTO countries are bound to agree on 18 specific points in the agreement. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is the most important one in the context of the pharmaceutical sector and access to medicines.

Under the TRIPS Agreement, WTO Members are bound to provide protection for a minimum term of 20 years from the filing date of a patent application for any invention including for a pharmaceutical product or process. Prior to the TRIPS Agreement, patent duration was significantly shorter in many countries.

For example, both developed and developing countries provided for patent terms ranging from 15 to 17 years, whilst in certain developing countries, patents were granted for shorter terms of 5 to 7 years.

The TRIPS Agreement also requires countries to provide patent protection for both processes and products, in all fields of technology. Before TRIPS, many countries provided only process — but not product patents. Product patents provide for absolute protection of the product, whereas process patents provide protection in respect of the technology and the process or method of manufacture. These clauses created constraints for the pharmaceutical companies to produce generic medicines thus leading to high cost of medicines.

However, TRIPS also contains provisions that allow a degree of flexibility and sufficient room for countries to accommodate their own patent and intellectual property systems and developmental needs. This means countries have a certain amount of freedom in modifying their regulations and, various options exist for them in formulating their national legislation to ensure a proper balance between the goal of providing incentives for future inventions of new drugs and the goal of affordable access to existing medicines. This however requires political will in the leadership of the time.

Dr Vandana Shiva, a crusader for equity in trade practices and abolition of patent laws in medicine and agriculture, pointed out that multinational corporations (MNCs) have patented not just the medicines or the vaccines, but each and every product. It is astonishing to note that even the bacteria and viruses including the Coronavirus have been patented.

Such patenting denies the right of a person, a community or country over its own produce. Dr Shiva has contested the claim of the MNCs that they are doing research and so have the right to earn profit. Most of the research done worldwide is by the public institutions and through public funding, she says.

Bill Gates, who till date had the image of a philanthropist, stands exposed as a thoroughly insensitive businessman who wants to make huge profit in this hour of global health crises by denying the transfer of vaccine technology to the developing countries.

This has to be changed through public movements and the governments have to be forced not to work under the diktats of corporations or persons like Bill Gates. The patent rights on vaccines and medicines have to be waived off to save and promote health of the people globally particularly during this crisis of pandemic.

It is high time Indian government rejuvenates the public institutions which produced medicines and vaccines and who have commendable track record of serving the nation during health calamities in the past.

(IPA Service)

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