Anurag Jain, Shailza Agarwal & Raghav Sachdev, Students at Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA
ABSTRACT
The raison d’être of the paper is to dispense an overview on the Intellectual Property concerns associated with vaccines. Providing an introduction about the history of patents and vaccines and the linkage between the two, the paper proceeds to discuss how a plethora of fields are impacted in the process of patenting vaccines, both positively and negatively. The paper primarily analyses the economic, legal, political and ethical perspectives.
While the chief considerations of the economic field are discussed, the advantages and disadvantages of granting patents to vaccines are also highlighted. The legal provisions are further enumerated, along with solution to overcome the austere regulations to maintain a continuous supply. Through the political aspect, the world dynamics associated with production and distribution of vaccination and the concept of vaccine nationalism is deliberated upon at length. Parlaying about the distinction that ethical theories correspond to individualistic and societal obligations, an attempt to show the aforesaid in light of patenting vaccines is made.
The paper aims to put forth a balanced analysis over the debate of patents given for vaccines, through an insight into the fields that form the subject of such a debate.
