CONTEXT   The precarious second wave of COVID-19 infections has hit India with greater ferocity than the first. Multiple reports of the scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs have surfaced from different parts of the country.

CHALLENGES TO EQUITABLE VACCINE ACCESS

• According to the Observer Research Foundation, till the end of March, India had produced 316 million doses of Covishield and Covaxin — the two COVID-19 vaccines in use in India. Of this, 64.5 million doses have been exported.
• This suggests that the issue isn’t vaccine production. Instead, the problem has more to do with centralised procurement, distribution, and coordination with different State governments and local authorities.

MEANS TO SCALE UP VACCINE PRODUCTION

As India aims to inoculate more and more people, it is imperative to ramp up vaccine production. These legal means can be divided into: non-intellectual property-(IP)-based and IP-based options.

IP-based solutions

• Under Section 100 of the Patents Act, 1970, the Central government has the power to authorise anyone (such as specific pharmaceutical companies) to use any patents or patent applications for the “purposes of government”.
• Under this provision, the Central government can licence specific companies to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccines.
• The other option is to make use of Section 92 of the Patents Act, which allows the Central government to issue a compulsory licence (a licence issued to manufacture the patented product without the consent of the patent holder) in circumstances of national emergency or extreme urgency or in case of public non-commercial use.
• The pandemic is a circumstance of national emergency. Thus, the Central government, under Section 92, can issue a notification in this regard.
• Another option available to the government is that all COVID-19 vaccine projects that are funded by the taxpayer’s money should not claim IP rights in the first place or if patents are granted, they should not be enforced.

Non-IP-based solutions

• Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897, empowers the government, during the outbreak of an epidemic, to take measures that it may deem necessary to prevent the outbreak or its spread.
• Likewise, Section 26B of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, empowers the Central government to regulate the sale, manufacture, and distribution of a drug that is essential to meet the requirements of an emergency arising due to an epidemic.
• Hence, the government can direct pharmaceutical companies to loan their manufacturing capacity to the existing COVID-19 manufacturers like the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to boost their manufacturing capability.

The government needs to explore the production capabilities of the pharmaceutical companies in the public sector to build India’s manufacturing competence. Also, it needs to collaborate with different State governments and local authorities for equitable access to vaccines for all.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/scaling-up-vaccine-production/article34304767.ece