During the second wave of Covid-19, the Honourable Supreme Court observed that the Government of India should not hesitate to take measures under IP laws to enhance the production of vaccines and drugs that are of immediate use for covid-19. How to achieve vaccine equity remains a challenge globally and not just in India. However, it is an immediate challenge for lower, middle-income, and least-developed countries where the scale of populations affected by the pandemic, livelihood issues, and economic recoveries are very different. It is in this spirit India and South Africa joined by other countries from the African Group and the LDCs made a proposal for waiver of IP rights at the WTO. While it remains to be seen how the waiver proposal in itself will ensure technology transfer even when IP rules are suspended domestically, the message that it carries is that more needs to be done on the issue of access to vaccines and drugs during the pandemic. We need more global cooperation on these issues and action domestically. It is true that these vaccines and drugs have been invented within a short period of time. The time now is to take action on how to make them accessible as soon as possible. Of course, there is no easy or a one-size-fits-all solution. The panel discussion attempted to answer the most difficult and challenging questions of our times.
