Almost halfway through 2021, India finds itself in the midst of a healthcare crisis effected by the proliferation of the second wave of COVID-19.
Amidst the acute shortage of vaccines across the country, the law and policy surrounding production of COVID-19 vaccines merit consideration.
A former Global General Counsel of pharma heavyweights Cipla and Glenmark, Murali Neelakantan has directly worked on issues at the intersection of healthcare and law for close to a decade.
In this interview with Bar & Bench, Neelakantan sheds light on what role Intellectual Property Rights play on how fast vaccines can be produced at a large scale, the gaps in India's COVID-19 vaccination policy, the iniquitous pricing of vaccines and more.
The Supreme Court had recently asked the Central government to explore the feasibility of invoking Section 92 of the Patents Act, 1970 to issue compulsory licenses for the production of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Speaking on this issue, Neelakantan says,
"It is necessary and easy to do. The issue simply is that the Central government is too meek. It is so scared that some country will do something to affect its trade globally...I think if we issue a notification under Section 92 and an announcement that if technology transfer is not done there will a notification of Section 102 (acquisition of inventions and patents by the Central government), then a lot of companies will start licensing voluntarily. And we can achieve the objective without having to issue compulsory licenses."
On the issue of large scale of production of the vaccine, he says,
"As far production is concerned, COVAXIN was made with the government. The government owns the IP for it, so it can issue a license to anyone. My request is to make it available for free and offer free technology transfer to anybody in the world who wants it. We have vaccine capacity in India that is not utilised...If you make this offer, it will shame the rest of the world into following behind us. It is a chance for us to take leadership of the global South.
A lot of the TRIPS flexibilities came into being after India took a stand at the WTO. Unfortunately, after having this fantastic power, we have not used it. And so it makes you look meek if you have a power and do not use it. If India does two things - makes a notification under the Patents Act and offers free licenses - we will get back leadership of the global South and lots of countries will feel confident to do the same thing. We have the ability to get something done very quickly and at scale."
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