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Business News/ News / India/  Parl panel seeks compulsory licensing for covid drugs, jabs
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Parl panel seeks compulsory licensing for covid drugs, jabs

At the World Trade Organization, India and South Africa have sought a temporary patent waiver to facilitate fair, affordable and universal access to covid jabs and drugs for all countries

A joint letter by major opposition parties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 May had also urged him to invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic vaccine productionPremium
A joint letter by major opposition parties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 May had also urged him to invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic vaccine production

The bipartisan parliamentary standing committee on commerce has recommended invoking compulsory licensing for the production of medicines and vaccines for the treatment of covid, since the pandemic has led to a national health emergency.

“Generic production in large quantities without any obligation of patents would help in removal of supply constraints in the availability of affordable drugs, medicines and vaccines at times of high caseload and death toll due to covid-19. The committee recommends that the government should delve into the prospect of temporarily waiving off patent rights and issuing compulsory licensing to tackle the inadequacy in availability and accessibility of covid-19 vaccines and drugs during an emergency-like situation induced by the pandemic," the committee said in its report, titled ‘Review of the Intellectual Property Rights Regime in India’.

Section 92 of the Patent Act, 1970, provides a special provision for issuing compulsory licence (CL) by the central government to a third party to use the patent without the consent of the patent holder, after paying a government-determined royalty to the patent owner. The government can invoke CL in circumstances of “national emergency or in circumstances of extreme urgency or in case of public non-commercial use". India has issued a CL only once, to Natco Pharma Ltd for producing the generic version of Bayer Corp.’s patented drug Nexavar, which is a life-extending drug used in the treatment of liver and kidney cancer.

At the World Trade Organization, India and South Africa have sought a temporary patent waiver to facilitate fair, affordable and universal access to covid jabs and drugs for all countries.

While lauding the government’s efforts, the panel observed that immediate steps should be taken at the domestic level such as issuing compulsory licences and encouraging the mechanism of voluntary licensing to share technology with other firms.

“This will help in scaling up production and manufacturing of covid vaccines and medicines in the country at times of a national health emergency. Proactive steps should be taken for technology transfers to manufacturing companies once the trials of medicines or vaccines are completed in order to prevent any delay in their availability, which would be detrimental to the country’s interest," the report said.

While hearing a suo motu case on the pandemic on 30 April, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre why it wasn’t issuing compulsory licensing under the Patent Act to boost the production of covid vaccines and drugs. The court observed that several drugs that were at the core of covid treatment protocol are under patents in India, including remdesivir, tociluzumab and favipiravir. However, it had left the final decision to invoke the CL to the government.

“We have only outlined the legal framework within which the central government can possibly consider compulsory licensing," the SC had said.

A joint letter by major opposition parties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 May had also urged him to “invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic vaccine production".

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Published: 23 Jul 2021, 10:43 PM IST
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