Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday urged the Union government to grant compulsory license for Covid-19 vaccines and drugs, saying that it would make vaccines and life-saving Covid medicines accessible to people and save lives.
In a statement DAK said the compulsory licensing is a provision under the patent act that enables a government to allow other Pharma companies to produce the patented drugs in times of public health emergency.
“A Pharma company that develops a drug gets patent protection that prohibits other manufacturers from producing the drug for a period of 20 years,” the statement said.
“We are in a grave public health crisis and precious lives are being lost each day. The lives of people should take priority over everything else. We should go for compulsory licensing now,” it said.
“In order to respond to the huge demand for vaccines and drugs, there is a need to rapidly upscale production, which can only happen when there are more companies involved in manufacturing and this is possible by issuing compulsory licenses. Tocilizumab, a life-saving drug for Covid is one of the patented drugs for which the government should invoke a compulsory licensing clause.
“The drug which costs Rs 40,000 for a single dose is manufactured by Switzerland based Pharma company Roche and is marketed by Cipla in India. Despite being on clinical protocol, there is a shortage of the drug.”
The statement said though the patent owner of Remdesivir Gilead, a US based Pharma Company has allowed few Indian pharma houses to produce the drug, there is an increased demand amid severe second wave of the pandemic and we need to permit others to manufacture the drug.
“In order to reach herd immunity we need to vaccinate three in five and for that the country needs 150 to160 crore doses of the vaccine. And we need them quickly. Currently, India is producing 65 million doses every month.
“This makes a crying need for patent wavering and granting of compulsory licensing for other manufacturing units to produce the vaccine.”
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
