That 4 lakh+ people were infected and nearly 4200 perished during Friday and Saturday morning will not be enough to perfectly reflect India’s ground zero Covid picture. As on Saturday evening, a little over 1.7 lakh Covid patients were on ventilation and a whopping 9 lakh+ on oxygen support, both in short supplies- this must be a more apt way of mirroring the reality- if critical decisions are not taken in time or delayed, health disasters of this kind are hardly avoidable. The Supreme Court on the day did a great service to the nation by setting up a 12-member National Task Force to facilitate public health response for Covid including streamlining of oxygen distribution among states/ UTs on a scientific, rational and equitable basis. This was the measure supposed to come by now from the Union Health Ministry and it seems that unless there are further interventions by the apex court, the other ‘appropriate actions’ the country desperately needs now to mitigate the pandemic’s pains will not flow in. The major one which is also widely discussed is the strange delay (or shelving altogether?) in invoking the relevant Section(s) of Patents Act, 2005 i.e. Compulsory Licensing (CL) that would pave the way for multiple drug makers in the country to manufacturer Covid vaccines- the one and only option left for mitigating the supply crisis which is taking a monumental proportion with each passing day.
It can be recounted that the SC has asked the government to explore the possibility of issuing compulsory licences under the Patents Act of 2005 for locally producing critical drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab for treating Covid-19 patients, all of which are also in great shortage like vaccines. And since it’s a clear case of national health emergency, there are no legal barriers in applying the relevant provision of the Patents Act for vaccines also. Medical fraternity will remember that earlier the provision was used for allowing an Indian pharma maker to manufacture Nexavar, a drug needed for treating kidney cancer patients, the patent rights of which was then enjoyed by a German multinational pharmaceutical. First of all, sticking to the age-wise and category-wise vaccination rollout methodology has been a blunder, just it has been the decision of exporting and giving vaccine grants. Now that the demand-supply gap  is hard to measure even, it was expected that a decision regarding CL would arrive sooner than later. However, as of now it’s still pending. The scenario will dramatically change if multiple drug manufacturers start the production of vaccines simultaneously and the clamour which seems endless now would have ended in no time.
The country just can’t afford to enjoy the luxury of wasting precious time. Sadly, it’s a folly that’s being repeated.  

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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