Rich countries block India, South Africa's bid to ban Covid vaccine patents | Hacker News Reader

Rich countries block India, South Africa's bid to ban Covid vaccine patents

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57 pointssbmthakur13 comments

Global laws like copyright are some crazy level of entitlement imo. What if a country has a different perspective on how to motivate creativity and wants to use different rules? Trade embargo? War?

Iraq was justified by "democracy" being a "global law", USA volunteered to enforce it and got some others involved as well.. We also have "human rights" and then there is "copyright"?

Maybe I am misunderstanding something... I would really appreciate a run down on how they justify / implement these kinds of things...

Countries have a right to deal with patents how they see fit. But if they want to trade with other countries they are going to see pressure to comply. No one is going to sell an intellectually protected product if the country is not going to make any effort to protect that property.

And then there is China...

What's that phrase? 'Capitalism will sell the rope used to hang itself'..? It's kinda like that IMO. If the country has a big enough economy they can indeed break the rules and even the most principled people will shrug and say there's nothing we can do. In practice these principles are a lot more pliable than people make it seem

The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 signed by Pres. Clinton made it official US policy to support democratic movements in Iraq. However there was never any claim of democracy being a global law.

The sad part is that Brazil joined the US in blocking this attempt.

They should go ahead anyway and tell the WTO et all to go to hell.

It's time a group of countries took on the WTO and its cronies and COVID-19 is the best excuse they'll get. Ultimately, the rich countries wouldn't do anything as there would be worldwide outrage.

Both can simply declare a national emergency and be free of any legal obligation to respect patents.

> (Wealthy nations) who said that a ban would stifle innovation at pharmaceutical companies by robbing them of the incentive to make huge investments in research and development.

I can’t believe that pharmaceutical companies get away with this narrative. A large portion of drugs that end up being approved for use are funded and enabled by government funding. [1][2] The Covid vaccine wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for government funding [3].

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/drugs-government-funded-scien...

[2] https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5766

[3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-billion-dolla...

Whatever your feelings on this, I don't think India should continue to be treated as a “developing” country and given special considerations for IP. India is a growing economic powerhouse. It is expected to reach close to $10 Trillion in GDP by 2030 and projected to surpass the US in GDP by 2050.

It is time, instead of just claiming to be a developing country and asking for concessions, it should start stepping up more and contributing to the commons.

That ignores two important aspects: does India's future matter more than its present? and: total GDP tells much less about the people than GDP per capita. India is 3-4 times the population of USA.

What about GDP per capita?

Firstly, USA is $65K per capita, India is $2,000.

Secondly, how does having a patent and profiting from it constitute "contributing to the commons"? It's just business as usual.

Thirdly, suppose people of India were to conduct a referendum tomorrow, would they decide to have patent law on medicine at all? Surery principles of democracy and national sovereignty must be respected?

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