Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday pitched for increasing efforts at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for getting patent waivers for diagnostics and therapeutics used to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. In June last year, members of the WTO agreed to grant a temporary patent waiver for the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines for five years. It was agreed to start talks on including therapeutics and diagnostics, as proposed by India and South Africa, under the purview of this waiver after six months.
Goyal also said there was a need for depoliticisation of the global supply of essential medicines.
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