Pharmaceutical Patents and the Covid Vaccination Patent Waiver

Abstract

The paper is aimed at analyzing, historically and empirically, the importance of the use of pharmaceutical patents in promoting research and development and fostering innovation and inventions in the pharmaceutical sector. This debate became relevant in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic that was witnessed with peaks in 2020 and 2021 and the associated vaccine patent waiver that the World Trade Organization undertook. Section I gives a brief background on how the patents are the backbone of any pharmaceutical company as they provide the company the incentive to do Research and Development (R&D) activities for the production of new drugs. Section II traces the genesis of the patent regime in India and the provisions, especially with reference to the pharmaceutical sector, of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 and its amendments. Section III focuses on the covid vaccine patent waiver, first by presenting an overview of the vaccine status the world over and then a discussion of the genesis of the patent waiver argument along with the ensuing debate, with the social welfare vs the profitability argument discussed at length. Section IV provides the concluding notes of the waiver policy being finally adopted by the WTO in June 2022 and the reactions of the nations thereof.