Counting the Cost

Should vaccine makers give away patents to speed up rollout?

Vaccination is crucial to get a quarter of a billion people who lost their jobs during the pandemic back into work.

South Africa and India turned to the World Trade Organization to ask vaccine makers to give up their intellectual property rights so more COVID-19 vaccines can be produced locally.

It is a proposal that the United States, United Kingdom and European Union rejected. The WTO believes the global economy would lose $9 trillion in potential output if poor countries were unable to get their populations vaccinated quickly. We speak to Dr Omar Chughtai, director of operations at Chughtai Laboratories, about Pakistan’s vaccination programme.

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Will rich countries lift waivers on patents for COVID vaccines?

Plus, the World Health Organization’s Dr Alison Schafer talks about mental health.

And Umer Suleman, the head of Wahed UK’s advisory board, discusses the rise of Islamic finance.