Posted by Michael Wonder on 12 Oct 2020
How patent law and medicine regulations could affect New Zealand's access to a COVID-19 vaccine
12 October 2020 - New Zealand has allocated an undisclosed sum, in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, to access COVID-19 vaccines when they become available.
The funding is on top of a $37 million vaccine strategy, but the government has not released specifics because of commercial sensitivities that "could prevent the best possible deal for New Zealanders".
Apart from the intricacies of global efforts to develop, test and distribute a vaccine, there are also domestic legal issues the government might need to consider, particularly in patent law and the regulatory review of medicines.
