| Swadeshi Jagran Manch campaigns for patent free COVID-19 vaccines, drugs | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 2: In a bid to make COVID-19 vaccines and drugs cheaper and accessible to common man, an intensive mass campaign "Universal Access to Vaccines and Medicines" has been launched by Swadeshi Jagran Manch seeking complete access of vaccines and medicines across the country and the world to all capable producers, make these vaccines and medicines patent-free and their technology globally accessible.
Under this campaign cooperation is being sought from various social, cultural and other organizations, educational institutions, and enlightened people, and academics, judges from India and abroad to sign the online petition on link https://joinswadeshi.com/form2/.
To make these vaccines and medicines accessible to all, SJM strongly castigates granting right to profiteering companies in view of current threat to humanity as right to the human life is a fundamental universal right. 120 countries have so far supported the proposal of the Government of India in the World Trade Organization, along with South Africa, to facilitate patent-free vaccines and medicines made in October itself, seeking waiver from TRIPS agreement.
More than four lakh people have signed the petition in the digital signature campaign from India and 20 more countries and have urged the WTO to relax the provisions of intellectual property rights in the present scenario and intervene for voluntary grant of patent-free rights, including transfer of technology by Global pharmaceutical manufacturer and vaccine manufacturer companies for the sake of humanity. In India about 200 crore doses are required to vaccinate at least 70% of the population. For this there is an urgent need for large scale production, for which international technology will be needed. Measures would be required to facilitate the transfer of technology and to overcome the barriers related to intellectual property rights, including patents and trade secrets. An international conference in this regard was also organized by some universities and Association of Indian Universities on 28th May 2021.
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