Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/256807 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1095
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
Should the intellectual property rights on the first Covid-19 vaccines be temporarily lifted in applying the Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) flexibility? Is it right to grant the first generation of Covid-19 vaccines a special treatment from an IPR perspective? On what grounds? By extensively reviewing the available medical and economic literature on the subject, this chapter will guide the reader step-by-step to the leading scientific, political, and cultural challenges in granting broad worldwide access to vaccination. The accumulated delays in providing effective Covid-19 vaccine intervention in the low- and middle-income countries are ultimately responsible for the virus circulation at the global level and the proliferation of immunity-escaping variants. Therefore governmental rationality around the world would suggest any possible active policy tool to scale up the current vaccines supply. However, not to prevent future investment in R&D, the governments should bear the cost of the expected increased industry obsolescence determined by a temporary patent waiver; this includes public patent-buy-outs and regulated public-private R&D partnerships.
Subjects: 
Vaccines
Covid-19
Pandemics
Patents
Innovation
JEL: 
I18
O30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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