Vaccinating the world means solving patent impasse; India has suggestion

A patent gives a drugmaker exclusive rights to manufacture a vaccine it developed

Covid-19 vaccines look set to protect millions of citizens of the world’s richest countries in the coming months. But inoculating the rest of the planet’s population may mean finding a way around an impasse over intellectual property.
 

Representatives from all 164 member states of the World Trade Organization met last week in Geneva to discuss a proposal from India and South Africa to waive broad sections of the WTO’s intellectual property rules and to try to forge an agreement on how patents developed in the race against Covid-19 should be recognized.

The meeting ended without consensus, leaving