No space for vax nationalism: FM
New Delhi, May 3: Cautioning the global community against vaccine nationalism at this critical hour of the spreading pandemic, India on Monday asked the developed nations to share technology and allow free movement of critical components and raw material needed for production of vaccines.
Speaking at the Asian Development Bank’s annual meet, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also underlined the need for a re-look at the TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement in the context of the pandemic.
"Countries will have to be open about sharing vaccine-based technologies. The Trips agreement will have to be looked at in the context of the pandemic. There cannot be any more vaccine nationalism, countries will have to be flexible about it," she said.
The Trips agreement is a legal pact between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. The agreement has been in force from January 1995.
Participating in a virtual governors' seminar, Sitharaman said there is a need to have a global multilateral approach to deal with the Covid pandemic.
One critical point in
ramping up the production (of vaccine) capacity is access to critical raw materials, she said.
"Although
we
speak about global value chain and the need for countries to open up trade and also facilitate free movement of raw materials, critical components, critical APIs and so on, we find that the movement of critical raw materials for production of vaccines is finding certain hiccups. We would love that to be sorted out at the earliest so that India can produce," she said.
It is important that critical raw materials are available and made to flow freely, she said, adding, two more vaccines, including a nasal spray are in the offing to treat Covid.
Indian vaccine manufacturers, including Serum Institute of India (SII), faced problems in production last month as Europe and the US banned export of critical raw materials.
Tagging the Twitter handle of the President of the United States, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla had tweeted, "Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details."
The ban was lifted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US President Joe Biden held discussions on issues related to the Covid crisis in India last week. Modi had also discussed India's initiative at the WTO for a relaxation in the norms of the agreement on Trips to ensure quick and affordable access to vaccines and medicines for developing countries.