Episode 81: Why Isn't Canada Supporting a Proposal to Help Developing Countries Gain Access to COVID-19 Vaccines?

October 28, 2021 00:22:32
Episode 81: Why Isn't Canada Supporting a Proposal to Help Developing Countries Gain Access to COVID-19 Vaccines?
Law Bytes
Episode 81: Why Isn't Canada Supporting a Proposal to Help Developing Countries Gain Access to COVID-19 Vaccines?

Oct 28 2021 | 00:22:32

/

Show Notes

As countries around the globe work to get their citizen vaccinated against COVID-19, a battle over intellectual property rules has emerged at the World Trade Organization. Last year, Canada passed legislation designed to ensure that patents would not pose a barrier to securing supplies of a vaccine or treatment. A year later, developing countries around the world have looked to the WTO to develop similar standards through a waiver process that would speed up access to, and production of, vaccines. Yet the proposal has run into opposition at the WTO, including from Canada.

Thiru Balasubramaniam is the Geneva Representative of Knowledge Ecology International, where he works on IP, health, and trade issues at the WTO, WIPO, and World Health Organization. He joins the Law Bytes podcast to discuss the recent developments at the WTO, the position of developed countries such as Canada, and what this means for global access to critical vaccines.

The podcast can be downloaded here, accessed on YouTube, and is embedded below. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or the RSS feed. Updates on the podcast on Twitter at @Lawbytespod.

Show Notes:

India and South Africa TRIPS Waiver Proposal

Government of Canada TRIPS Council Statement, February 2021

Credits:

Al Jazeera English, Vaccine Patent Waiver Calls: 100 Countries Push for More Equitable Access

Other Episodes

Episode

October 28, 2021 00:26:03
Episode Cover

Episode 43: Heather Joseph on the Coronavirus and the Urgent Need for Open Access to Research Publications

Over the past several weeks, our world has been upended by Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Given the head-spinning changes taking place in our society,...

Listen

Episode

October 22, 2021 00:24:40
Episode Cover

Episode 31: Is Canadian Media in a Financial Crisis? - Marc Edge With a Different Take on What the Data Says

Is the Canadian media in a state of financial crisis? Stories on newspaper closures and journalist layoffs have become frustratingly commonplace in recent years,...

Listen

Episode

August 08, 2022 00:33:42
Episode Cover

Episode 138: John Lawford on the Legal, Regulatory and Policy Responses to the Rogers Outage

Rogers has provided some answers to the many questions about its massive outage last month that affected millions of Canadians. Yet there is still...

Listen