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Free-market group calls for a licensing system on vaccine patents

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Quality control of vaccine manufacturing, especially on raw materials, will be affected if patent protection is removed, the group says.

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Free Malaysia Today
After an MP suggested a waiver of patent rights, a free-market group has called for a licensing system.

PETALING JAYA:
A free-market group has defended the intellectual property (IP) protection on Covid-19 vaccine patents against an MP’s call for a temporary waiver of such rights.

The Center for Market Education (CME) said a waiver would reduce the incentive to produce more vaccines and amount to an attack on public health. The waiver would also affect quality control in vaccine manufacturing, especially on raw materials.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said earlier today that Malaysia must support a push by several countries to temporarily waive IP rights on Covid-19 vaccines.

Santiago said a waiver of these rights would allow the government to authorise the production of vaccines without the consent of the pharmaceutical companies that developed them.

However, CME’s chief executive officer, Carmelo Ferlito, said the real problem affecting the global vaccination system was the different export bans implemented by various countries such as the US and Britain.

He also said the lack of vaccine distribution was related to non-trade measures, not IP rights.

He suggested that an IP licensing system be created which would defend inventors and also protect all citizens.

Ferlito said removing IP rights would make it more difficult for innovators to share the technology and know-how needed for manufacturers to produce genuine and effective vaccines.

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