The target at present is to vaccinate at least 10% of the vulnerable in every country by September. Soumya Swaminathan, a scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), has urged countries to explore options for increasing vaccine production, including voluntary licences, technology pools, use of TRIPS flexibilities and waiver of intellectual property provisions. Countries would … Read more
Big pharma industries are not in favour of sharing the rights and know-how needed to produce vaccines, citing intellectual property pilferage concerns. Quick vaccination against COVID 19 is the only hope in ending the global pandemic which has claimed more than 3.4 million lives so far. A hindrance to mass production of vaccines is the … Read more
In India, 61 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have already been administered, while 64 million doses have been given to 84 nations under various programmes, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Tuesday. Virtually participating in a panel discussion on vaccine production and distribution across Asia at the ‘World Immunisation and Logistics Summit’, he detailed … Read more
The vaccines are being sent to these countries as humanitarian aid. Keeping in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment that the country’s vaccine production capacities would be used for all of humanity, India has announced a humanitarian donation of 5.7 lakh doses of vaccines for the Caribbean Region. Which are the countries? This includes … Read more