India, April 16 -- Compulsory licensing might be the answer

The world has the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine access problem: Almost half of all doses administered so far have been in Europe and North America, while many poorer countries have vaccinated less than than 1 per cent of their populations.

With new coronavirus variants raising the health risk, South Africa and India have proposed that the World Trade Organization temporarily waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines to help ramp up production.

The United States of America, Britain and the European Union rejected the idea , arguing that intellectual property rights - which give vaccine creators the power to prevent other companies from reproducing ...