In the latest bid to expand access to the Pfizer Covid-19 pill, several advocacy groups are trying to create a path for generic manufacturers to sell the treatment in Colombia, which was excluded from a licensing deal the drugmaker reached to make the medicine more readily available in lower-income countries.
The plan hinges on convincing the Colombian government to issue a compulsory license, which countries can grant to a public agency or a generic drugmaker to allow them to copy a patented medicine without the consent of the brand-name company that owns the patent. This right was memorialized in a World Trade Organization agreement. Similar bids are under way in Chile and the Dominican Republic.