Act on Covid-19 Vaccine Intellectual Property Rights - SADC
Members of the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) Parliament have called for action on Covid-19 vaccine intellectual property rights by building the region's capacity to produce medicines and to ensure that citizens benefit from the region's vast medicinal plant resources. The main challenge with intellectual property rights and access to medicines in sub-Saharan Africa is the gap between the huge disease burden and the slow uptake of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) flexibilities that are freely available to the countries because of "structural and technical factors," said Nyasha Chingore, programmes lead at the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa. While the U.S., UK and Canada have actively blocked a patent-waiver proposal intended to increase the global production of Covid-19 vaccines, White House officials stated that the U.S. may reverse its position, though no decision has yet been made.
As of April 29, 2021, the continent hass recorded 4,532,203 cases of Covid-19 of which 121,141 proved fatal and 4,073,969. The number of vaccinations to date total 12,216,007.
-
Southern Africa:
Action Demanded on Covid-19 Vaccine Intellectual Property Rights
Daily Maverick, 28 April 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has amplified the need to address issues related to intellectual property and human rights, as well as for taking steps to benefit from trade-related aspects… Read more »
-
Southern Africa:
SADC MPs Demand Action On Intellectual Property, Trips Flexibilities
New Era, 21 April 2021
The Covid-19 global pandemic has amplified the need to address issues related to Intellectual Property (IP) and human rights as well as for taking steps to benefit from TRIPS… Read more »
-
South Africa:
Lamola Calls for Equitable Access to Covid-19 Vaccines
SAnews.gov.za, 26 March 2021
With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to grip the world, Justice and Correctional Services Minister, Ronald Lamola, has joined calls for a waiver of intellectual property rights… Read more »
-
Africa:
Intellectual Property and Covid-19 Medicines - Why a WTO Waiver May Not Be Enough
The Conversation Africa, 24 February 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the race to make vaccines and other useful technologies more accessible to people around the world, has once again highlighted the tension between… Read more »
InFocus
-
As of August 21, 2022, confirmed cases of Covid-19 from 55 African countries reached 12,126,067 while 373,195,217 vaccinations have been administered across ... Read more »
-
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the continent needs to build a vibrant and innovative medical supplies manufacturing capability that meets the health needs of ... Read more »
-
According to the Nairobi Covid-19 pandemic data outlook report, by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services, the capital city has recorded 931 deaths since March 2020, when Kenya ... Read more »
-
The government has warned that the country will soon be grappling with a third wave of the coronavirus due to the attitudes of many Nigerians who are now acting as if the ... Read more »
(file photo).