Africa, Southeast Asia ask drug companies to share coronavirus vaccine knowledge

A proposal to suspend intellectual property rights during the pandemic. That option would force drug companies to share. The idea has been blocked in the World Trade Organization by the United States and Europe, home to the companies responsible for creating coronavirus vaccines. That drive has the support of at least 119 countries and the African Union. Drug companies say instead of lifting IP restrictions, rich countries should give more vaccines to poorer countries through COVAX, the public-private initiative WHO helped create to distribute vaccines more equally. The organization and its partners delivered its first doses last week in very limited quantities.