India Claims Vaccine-Patent Waiver Moved Forward by WTO Comes Too Late

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently approved a package of agreements that included the long-debated vaccine patent waiver to help combat the global COVID pandemic by ensuring more equal access to vaccines.

However, after years of heated and unrelenting negotiation, the Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, an ardent supporter of the IP waiver, claimed that the agreement was only 'half-baked' and came much too late. In a statement issued as a reaction to the agreement announced by the WTO Goyal states: "It is just too late. There is no demand for vaccines anymore."