Hundreds of Scientists Push UK Prime Minister to Support IP Waiver for COVID-19 Products

More than 320 public health experts and scientists urged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to endorse a measure proposed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that would temporarily waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.

Waiving intellectual property protections would allow developing nations to manufacture COVID-19 products at scale and help prevent the emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they said in a letter to Johnson and his cabinet.

The letter’s prominent signatories include members of the UK’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and a former head of the National Health Service.

The UK is providing booster doses to up to 1 million people every day, while “more than 3 billion people across the world have yet to receive their first dose,” the letter said.