COVID-19
Unprecedented – The Rapid Innovation Response to COVID-19 and the Role of Intellectual Property
Jennifer Brant, Director of Innovation Council, will present a recent research report that she co-authored about the constructive role played by IP rights in the rapid development and manufacturing of COVID-19 solutions. Jetane Charsley, Head of NIPMO, will host the event and lead a moderated discussion.
Tuesday, May 10 / 01:00 PM Johannesburg (CET)
Click here to register for this event.
UNCTAD’s Global Trade Update
UNCTAD’s Global Trade Update was published on 17 February 2022. It shows that in 2021 global trade growth remained strong, as its value continued to increase through each quarter of 2021. Trade growth was not only limited to goods, as trades in services also grew substantially through 2021, to finally reach pre-pandemic levels during Q4 2021.
A Covid vaccine breakthrough bypasses the stale debate on patent waivers
Heated debates have taken place at the WTO TRIPS Council over Covid-19 vaccine patents and IP rights, with ongoing discussions still taking place among diplomats from the US, India, South Africa, and the EU. For vaccine researchers, manufacturers, and public experts, though, the focus may have moved on some time ago, says Alan Beattie in a new “trade secrets” posting for the FT. Governments seem also to be shifting focus to emphasize practical efforts to extend manufacturing and distribution capacity globally; by way of example, the EU recently announced a €1bn contribution to finance the German company BioNTech to set up a mobile vaccine manufacturing plant in Africa assembled from kits.
Slideshow: Extending Bio-manufacturing Networks in Africa and IP and Covid
This slideshow presents key messages from the recent Innovation Council – Bobab online discussion about extending bio-manufacturing networks in emerging regions, notably Africa. The discussion on February 8th featured Prof. Mark Schultz of the University of Akron School of Law, Anissa Boumlic of Merck Life Science, and Simon Agwale of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative. Click here for the video of the event, and click here to review a transcript of the event.
Center for Global Development series on the EU-Africa Summit
On February 17th, the long-awaited summit between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), delayed since 2020, finally began. But in the time since the first event was scheduled, the world was ravaged by a pandemic that is estimated to have stalled a decade of continuous growth and human capital improvement on the African continent.
The Center for Global Development prepared an excellent series on the EU-Africa Summit consisting of mini reports by CGD experts about the various joint priorities set out by the AU and the EU. The series offers compelling analysis and commentary on the actions needed in order for a meaningful reconstruction of the relationship between the two continents to materialize.
Find the series here.
BioNTech to supply modular vaccine plants to African countries
The German company BioNTech announced on February 16th its plans to supply modular plants to make mRNA vaccines to Rwanda, Senegal and, potentially, South Africa. This announcement came ahead of a Europe-Africa summit at which increasing vaccine production in Africa is expected to be a vital topic of discussion. Not only would BioNTech be responsible for the delivery and installation of the modules, but the company said it was prepared to transfer know-how to local partners to enable them to operate independently.
While it had been previously stated that voluntary technology transfers had so far been limited during the pandemic, this was contradicted by research published end-2021, which can be found in an online report.
Bobab discussion about bio-manufacturing in emerging regions
The Innovation Council and Bobab organised a discussion on expanding BioManufacturing production capacity in emerging regions. Biologics, a category of pharmaceuticals which includes products such as vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments, are quickly becoming among the most important medical products in the world. By combining enabling government policies and technology transfer between innovators and their global partners, it will be possible to improve availability of biologics, increase health security, and enhance scientific and industrial capacity in developing countries.
Click here to see the transcript.
What’s at stake in COVID-19 jab patent waiver row
Over a year into global COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the question of whether jab formulas ought to be freely available is still unresolved—and undersupplied countries are turning to workarounds.
Here’s a look at the waiver row, with arguments for and against as well as workarounds that have sprung up in the meantime.
Experts discuss IP commercialisation, barriers to domestic innovation at 4th Annual IP Dialogue
Experts and Participants discussed support for intellectual property (IP) commercialization, challenges in fighting the global pandemic, barriers to domestic innovation, and the “next generation” of IP policy discussions in the digital economy at the 4th Annual IP Dialogue.
The US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) and US India Business Council, in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), virtually convened government and industry leaders for the final session of its 4th annual IP Dialogue. Although the global pandemic continues to affect millions, this year’s dialogue proved to be incredibly impactful, with IP playing such a key role in efforts to study and combat the ongoing global pandemic.
What South Korea’s vaccine industry success teaches us about global trade policy
Jennifer Brant of Innovation Council co-authored an article with Godfrey Firth for the World Economic Forum that uses the example of South Korea to show that tariff, trade facilitation and regulatory harmonisation measures can facilitate the global response to health crises such as COVID-19.
Capacity Building for Vaccine Manufacturing Across Developing Countries: The Way Forward
Innovation Council member Techinvention has published an article on capacity building for vaccine manufacturing. The authors of the paper show that challenges in the life cycle of vaccine production include process development, lead time, intellectual property, and local vaccine production. A robust and stable manufacturing process and constant raw material supplies over decades is critical. In a continuously evolving vaccine landscape, the need of the hour for developing nations is to manufacture their own vaccines besides having supply security, control over production scheduling and sustainability, control of costs, socio-economic development, and rapid response to local epidemics. There is a need for capacity building of workforce development, technology transfer, and financial support. Technology transfer has improved vaccine access and reduced prices of vaccines. Capacity building for the manufacturing of vaccines in developing countries has always been an area of paramount importance and more so in a pandemic situation.
Revolutionising the education ecosystem with artificial intelligence
The pandemic broke our long-accepted beliefs that a good education can only happen in a physical classroom, with a teacher imparting lessons to all students. It underscored the importance of a new approach to learning. While virtual lessons were a crucial stop-gap solution, we need to recognise that this crisis has presented us with an opportunity to change the way we educate our children – that we can herald a new future of education with the help of innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). With new technologies available, teaching can be done in a different, even more effective way.