Lawmakers urge EU to back vaccine IPR waiver
The European Parliament urged the European Union to reverse its position and support a proposed temporary lifting of intellectual property rights (IPR) for Covid-19 vaccines, backing a push by many developing nations to allow more production.
EU lawmakers backed by 355 votes to 263 a resolution on accelerating the global roll-out of vaccines, the parliament announced on Thursday.
The resolution says only a fraction of the 11 billion shots needed to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population has been produced and that relying on pledges of excess doses from richer nations is not enough.
The text says that international trade policy needs to play a role in facilitating trade and revisiting global IP rules.
South Africa and India have been pressing for eight months at the World Trade Organization for a temporary waiver of IP rights that could allow more manufacturers to produce shots.
Developed nations home to large pharmaceutical companies, including the European Union, have resisted, arguing that a waiver would not boost production and could undermine future research and development on vaccines and therapeutics.
Separately, the World Health Organization’s Europe director warned that the highly transmissible Covid variant first identified in India is “poised to take hold in the region”, as many countries prepare to ease curbs.
Dr Hans Kluge said the variant, also known as the delta variant, has shown signs of being able to evade some vaccines and warned that many vulnerable population remain unprotected.
Travel pass app to go live in a week, says IATA
General Willie Walsh, the head of global airline body IATA said a digital travel pass for Covid-19 test results and vaccine certifications would go live in the coming weeks following a testing phase.
The mobile application, which has been tested by some airlines, was originally designed to facilitate passenger screening at the airport check-in and aircraft boarding stages.
However, IATA says it has since modified the app for when passengers are also checked by immigration officers on arrival.
‘Researchers say they can treat rare AZ blood clots’
Researchers in Canada have claimed to have demonstrated an effective treatment for a rare blood clot caused by the Covid-19 vaccine made by Astrazeneca, which is also manufactured under the brand name Covishield by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII).
“The use of high-dose intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) plus anticoagulation is recommended for the treatment of VITT, a rare side-effect of adenoviral vector vaccines against Covid-19,” scientists at the Mcmaster Platelet Immunology Laboratory at Mcmaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, said in a study published in New England Journal of Medicine.