Waiving COVID-19 Vaccine Patents: A Bad Idea and a Dangerous Precedent

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J Pitts ◽  
Robert Popovian ◽  
Wayne Weingarden
Keyword(s):  
Patent Protection ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
Foundational Principle ◽  
Patent Rights ◽  
The World ◽  
Triple Play ◽  
Research Investments ◽  
The Devil

The Biden Administration believes that suspending COVID-19 vaccine patents will expedite the swift development of high quality “cheap” versions of existing vaccines and hasten the pandemic’s end. This view is dangerously wrong. Vaccinating the world is essential, but temporarily waiving patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines (also known as “compulsory licensing”) will actually slow their availability to the developing world.   While providing no gain, compulsory licensing promises lots of pain. Waiving patent protection discourages cutting-edge research investments, which in turn produce breakthrough treatments not just for COVID-19, but for other diseases, like cancer. Weakening these protections would be anti-patient and counterproductive.   The reality is that, in order to save the world, we must all work together as partners. The remarkable speed with which we developed diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines to combat COVID-19 points to the need for more collaboration, not less. Patents are a foundational principle upon which that success rests.   While the policy of temporarily waiving patents seems fair and humanitarian, the devil is in the details.  Such a policy will not result in a single citizen of the developing world getting vaccinated one minute sooner. In fact, the unintended consequences are the reverse. More confusion, lower quality, less transnational cooperation. A triple play of disastrous global proportions.

Give the Poor Patients a Chance: Enhancing Access to Essential Medicines through Compulsory Licensing

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakkrit Kuanpoth
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
General View ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
Patent Rights ◽  
Thai Government ◽  
Access To Essential Medicines

The important relationship between pharmaceutical patents and problem of inaccessibility of medicines by poor nations is exemplified more clearly by the experiences of developing countries in Asia. Thailand is one of these developing countries which has the most experience of the negative impact of stronger patent protection. The paper provides a general view of the problem of the inaccessibility of lifesaving medicines in Thailand. It also discusses the attempts of the Thai Government to use an available legal measure (ie compulsory licensing) to control the abuse of pharmaceutical patent rights, and provides a theoretical and practical analysis of various legal issues relating to the use of the non-voluntary licensing scheme to improve access to essential medicines.

scholarly journals Comment: Compulsory Licensing of Patented Pharmaceutical Inventions: Evaluating the Options

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome H. Reichman
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Uruguay Round ◽  
World Intellectual Property Organization ◽  
International Convention ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Patented Inventions

Few topics in international intellectual property law have been as controversial in recent years as the one we are about to examine. In the 1980s and early 1990s, a Diplomatic Conference attempted to revise the oldest international convention providing some protection for patented inventions outside of the domestic laws. Those efforts broke down, largely because developed and developing countries could not agree on the powers that governments should retain to issue compulsory licenses or on the grounds for which these powers could be exercised. The failure of this Conference, held under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), persuaded the technology-exporting countries to link future negotiations concerning international intellectual property protection to the Multilateral Trade Negotiations, known as the Uruguay Round, which got underway in 1986. The end result was Annex IC of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization of 1994, which incorporated a new, comprehensive and relatively elevated set of international minimum standards of patent protection into the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

A Review of Recent Developments at the Multilateral Level with Respect to Intellectual Property and the Pharmaceutical Industry

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-331
Author(s):  
Maximiliano Santa Cruz ◽  
Pedro Roffe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
World Intellectual Property Organization ◽  
World Health ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments

The adoption in 1994 of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) meant the incorporation of intellectual property as an important component of the international trading system. It meant also an end to the exclusive treatment of intellectual property issues in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). TRIPS meant also, the end of the accepted practice of excluding pharmaceutical products and or processes from patent protection, a practice that was particularly important for developing countries. This note reviews recent developments at the multilateral level after the adoption of TRIPS, namely the adoption of the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health in 2001 and the subsequent decision to amend the TRIPS for the effective use of the compulsory licensing system; the adoption of the Development Agenda by the WIPO General Assembly in 2007 and related recent developments in WIPO; and finally the adoption of the Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property by the 61st World Health Assembly in 2008. One common feature of these developments is the attempt to bring some balance to the international intellectual property system that has been characterised by an upward tendency to strengthen private rights and their enforcement to the detriment of public interest considerations.

scholarly journals Legal measures to Expand the Access to Treatment during the Pandemic in Ukraine and in the World

Medicne pravo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-48
Author(s):  
O. Y. KASHYNTSEVA ◽  
◽  
M. M. TROFYMENKO ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Access To Treatment ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
Patent Rights ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Managed Entry Agreements

The article concerns the comparative legal analysis of managed entryagreements (MEAs), compulsory licenses on inventions and the use of pat-ented inventions without the permission of an owner of the patent rights in order to ensure the health of the population and in emergency circum-stances. The authors determine the essential conditions and special fea-tures of such agreements. In article the authors present the analysis of theinternational legal regulation of the market of patent rights in the field ofpharmacy. Managed entry agreements are the effective legal instrumentfor ensuring access to innovative medicines, which are still in the post-clin-ical stage, while the compulsory licensing and the government use in thepublic interests could expand access to generic versions of medicines. All ofmentioned legal measures are available in Ukrainian legislation, but noneof them has been used yet. Key words: managed entry agreements, compulsory licenses, govern-ment use, intellectual property, human rights, access to medicines.

scholarly journals Comparing patent protection in Indonesia with that in Singapore and Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-222
Author(s):  
Lu Sudirman ◽  
Hari Sutra Disemadi
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Patent Rights ◽  
The World ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Formal Requirements

The discovery of technology has a huge impact on the economy of a country, so many countries focus on developing technology and apply this technology in their respective countries. Technological inventions must register patent rights to obtain legal protection to avoid losses that will harm inventors, stimulate creativity in creating new technologies and create fair business competition among companies engaged in technology. This normative research aims to compare patent protection in Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The benefit of this research is that it can contribute to scientific literature in the field of patent rights, can provide an overview of the form of patent rights arrangements in several countries outside Indonesia, so as to avoid disputes and/or misunderstandings with other countries. The participation of Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong in ratifying the Convention on the World Trade Organization and the agreement on the Trade Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) obliges these countries to establish regulations on patents in their respective countries. Although the application of patent law in Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong is based on the terms of the TRIPs agreement, the implementation and regulations must have differences. Patent registration in Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong have the same procedure, namely fulfilling the formal requirements, substantive examination, then the announcement stage. The term of patent protection in Indonesia and Singapore is similar, which is 20 years from the date of filing. However, it is different from Hong Kong, namely from the date of filing. In patent disputes, there are two ways of settlement, namely litigation and non-litigation. Patents in Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong have another similarity, namely that they are transferable and can be licensed. The focus of this research is only to compare the application of patent law and not to examine its strengths and weaknesses, so it is considered important to do further research on this matter.

Harmonization of Patent Law

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip W. Grubb ◽  
Peter R. Thomsen ◽  
Tom Hoxie ◽  
Gordon Wright
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Nagoya Protocol ◽  
Patent Rights ◽  
Patent Laws ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Se

This chapter details developments in the harmonization of patent laws. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement has made significant strides in harmonizing levels of patent protection. TRIPs requires practically all countries of the world to have patent systems in which compounds, including pharmaceuticals, can be patented per se for a term of at least twenty years, with no local working requirements and no routine granting of compulsory licences; with importation of a product and sale of the product or a process being clearly defined as infringement; and with clear standards for the enforcement of patent rights. Other harmonization initiatives include the Patent Law Treaty, the Substantive Patent Law Treaty, the Trilateral Cooperation, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Nagoya Protocol.

Compulsory Licensing under India’s New Model Bilateral Investment Treaty

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Kaszubska
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Trips Agreement ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
Bilateral Investment Treaty ◽  
Compulsory Licence ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
The World

The traditional lack of patent protection for pharmaceutical products allowed India’s generic sector to expand and become ‘the pharmacy of the world’ supplying affordable medicines to both developed and developing countries. With the entry into force of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in 2005, the mechanism of compulsory licensing was incorporated as a flexibility to ensure that the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights does not undermine the public access to affordable medicine. Following the issuance of the first compulsory licence by the India’s patent office to Natco for Nexavar in 2012, various domestic companies requested a licence for production of generic copies of patented drugs. The recourses and litigation over the compulsory licensing provisions under India’s Patent Act 1970 indicate the importance of the institution of compulsory licensing for ‘Indian pharma’ and its desire to rely on it in the future. This article attempts to assess the legal consequences of the new India’s Model Bilateral Investment Treaty providing investment tribunals with the jurisdiction to examine the compliance of domestic decision to grant compulsory licence with the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Agreement. JEL: K33, P45, F21, O34, O53, O19

scholarly journals Waste Plastic, the Challenge Facing Developing Countries—Ban It, Change It, Collect It?

Recycling ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Godfrey
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Waste Plastic ◽  
The World ◽  
Single Solution ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Taking Action

With changing consumption patterns, growing populations and increased urbanisation, developing countries face significant challenges with regards to waste management. Waste plastic is a particularly problematic one, with single-use plastic leaking into the environment, including the marine environment, at an unprecedented rate. Around the world, countries are taking action to minimise these impacts, including banning single-use plastics; changing petroleum-based plastics to alternative bio-benign products such as paper, glass or biodegradable plastics; and improving waste collection systems to ensure that all waste is appropriately collected and reprocessed or safely disposed. However, these “solutions” are often met with resistance, from business, government or civil society, due to the intended and unintended consequences, leaving many questioning the most appropriate solution to reducing the leakage. This paper argues that there is no one single solution to addressing the leakage of plastic into the environment, but that the solution is likely to be a combination of the three approaches, based on local considerations.

Schistosomiasis in modern and ancient tissues

1970 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Developing World ◽  
Epidemiology Study ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

Schistosoma worms are ancient, infecting man in both in the past and modern times. Today they infect more than 300 million people, mainly in the developing world where lifestyle is still similar to their ancestors. As part of an epidemiology study of Schistosomiasis, ancient tissues from the Manchester Museum and collections around the world are now being tested for the disease. Many problems have arisen whilst working with the ancient tissues, ranging from accessibility to its preparation for tests. However, many of the problems encountered have now been overcome enabling immunocytochemistry to be successfully applied to infected modern and ancient tissues, suggesting that schistosoma antigens can survive thousands of years. Immunocytochemistry has continued to be the predominant test used for this study, although DNA, ELISA and microsomal strips are also being explored

The World in the Process of Change: Challenges and Opportunities for Russia

2011 ◽  
pp. 3-30
Author(s):  
S. Chebanov
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
International Security ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Academic Conference ◽  
The World ◽  
90Th Anniversary ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Current Stage

This is a publication of the materials of academic conference “The world in the process of change: challenges and opportunities for Russia” held in April 2011 in IMEMO and chaired by academician A. Dynkin, the Institute’s Director. The conference was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of academician N. Inozemtsev. In their reports the Conference participants analyze the Russian economic and political development at the current stage, the issues of modernization, the problems of the developing world, international security in the XX century, etc.

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