
Brazil’s lower house of Congress on Tuesday approved the main text of a bill that will allow patents for the production of vaccines and medicines to be broken in cases of a public health emergency or national state of emergency.
The bill authorizes Congress to pass a law to break patents without the executive’s approval or support.
As the bill was changed – lawmakers approved a revised text – the proposal now goes back to the Senate for a second reading. Aecio Neves, the bill’s sponsor in the lower house, said there is cross-chamber support for the bill in its current form.
“There is an understanding that the changes … we introduced in the bill will also be incorporated in the Senate, which will maintain the text that we have negotiated here,” Neves said.
The government opposes the bill.
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