Right To Health and Covid-19 Vaccines : Decoding Science, Economics and Politics of Vaccine Patents

Abstract

As the International community battles with the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights concerns have emerged regarding what countries have done and haven't done, as well as how international organizations have managed to keep human rights safeguards in place. The controversy arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and a global health crisis has triggered a call for an equitable access to vaccines. Effective vaccine development, on the other hand, is a costly and time-consuming process that necessitates considerable amounts of investments. Pharmaceutical innovation would lose its economics and, as a result, its momentum if patent protection were not available. Vaccine development and Intellectual Property protection are strongly intertwined. The pharmaceutical industry's extensive research demands billions of dollars in investments, and patent protection ensures that pharmaceutical companies will profit from the results. The link between patents and innovation has long been established, and it is frequently claimed that robust patent protection promotes innovation.