In a significant shift in policy, the European Union has said that it will discuss the possibility of lifting patent protections for COVD-19 vaccines. This follows France joining the U.S. in supporting such a move on Thursday. Russia is also for lifting the protections on its vaccine.

The lifting of patent protections on vaccines is required to scale up vaccine production and make them available to poor countries at cheap rates. At present, the different companies that have come up with various vaccines control their production, sale and licensing, as the international rules that protect Intellectual Property Rights enable them to do so. However, this has meant that richer countries such as the U.S., U.K. and those in the EU are at an advantage as many of these large pharmaceutical companies are based there. These countries have financial and strategic reasons to ensure that the patents of these companies are protected, and that vaccine production and licensing are controlled from within their domains. This has resulted in the richer countries being able to pre-order and stock vast quantities of vaccines while poorer countries have faced shortages. India, which is host to SII, the licensed manufacturer of the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine, is still facing shortages because the production capacity is not enough. With a liberalised patent regime, more companies can take up vaccine production and governments can also rope in PSUs to manufacture vaccines.

Poor and developing countries have been pushing for a relaxation in the rules at the TRIPS Council of the WTO, which oversees the enforcement of the international TRIPS Agreement on intellectual property rights. India and South Africa had taken the lead on this last October, but the move was blocked by the richer countries including the U.S. and the EU. The shift in stance of the U.S., and the EU suggesting that it may be willing to do so, has been driven by internal and external pressure to free up the vaccines. The severity of the second wave, particularly in India, has amplified the need for large-scale vaccine production and the governments in the richer countries seem to have realised that. This could lead to more local companies getting into vaccine production, and the availability of cheaper vaccine in higher numbers. This is what makes the story important.
  

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