Temporary Waiver of Patent Rights in Public Health Emergencies: Inadequacy of Provisions during the COVID-19 Crisis

What is it about?

The COVID-19 outbreak has again highlighted the question of how to balance patent protection with the need to ensure access to, and affordability of medicines as a corollary of the right to life, during a public health emergency. Vaccines nationalism and the principles of multilateralism are being challenged in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. A proposal for patent rights waiver on medical and diagnostic equipment to allow for the importation or generic manufacture of these resources has not received a global support.

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