WHO backs India & South Africa's IPR waiver proposal to WTO for Covid treatment
WHO backs India & South Africa's IPR waiver proposal to WTO for Covid treatment: The World Health Organization (WHO) has supported India and South Africa’s proposal to the World Trade Organization to relax intellectual property agreements that might pose a challenge to gain access to Covid-19 vaccines. “WHO welcomes South Africa’s and India’s recent proposal to WTO to ease international and intellectual property agreements on COVID-19 vaccines, treatments & tests in order to make the tools available to all who need them at an affordable cost," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom said in a tweet. The move gains significance as global drug makers involved in the development of Covid therapeutics have refused to give up patents over their products. Organizations such as Geneva based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) that funds research for neglected diseases, UnitAid that invests in innovative technologies for the prevention and treatment of HIV, Malaria and Hepatiti...