Countries urge broader patent waivers than Covid-19 vaccines

GENEVA: Dozens of countries have revised a proposal at the WTO for patent waivers for medical tools needed to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), insisting it must be broader than just vaccines, non-governmental organizations said on Saturday.

More than 60 countries have presented a revision of their text before the World Trade Organization on ditching intellectual property protections for Covid-19 jabs and other medical tools while the pandemic rages, according to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity and NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).