The Manila Times

US plan on lifting vaccine patents sought

PORTO, Portugal: Europe on Saturday passed the ball back to Washington in a debate over coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine patents, pushing the US for a concrete proposal and a commitment to export much-needed jabs.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking after a summit of European Union and Indian leaders, said the EU had exported much of its own production and that America should follow suit.

“Now that a further part of the American population has been vaccinated, I hope that we can come to a free exchange of components and an opening of the market for vaccines,” she said.

European Council chief Charles Michel said the bloc was ready to discuss a US offer to suspend patent protection on vaccines — once the details are clear.

“We are ready to engage on this topic, as soon as a concrete proposal would be put on the table,” Michel said at an EU summit in Portugal that discussed that subject, among others.

He added that the EU had doubts about the idea being a “magic bullet” in the short term and encouraged “all the partners to facilitate the export of doses.”

France’s skepticism was plain, with President Emmanuel Macron declaring “patents are not the priority.”

A debate on the issue could be “a very good idea,” Macron suggested, but he added: “I call very clearly on the United States to put an end to export bans not only on vaccines but on vaccine ingredients, which prevent production.

“The key to producing vaccines more quickly for poor countries and developing countries is to produce more, to lift export bans.”

Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, echoed that.

“Before getting to the liberalization of vaccines, other simpler things should be done, such as removing the export block that today the US firstly and the UK continue to maintain,” he said.

“This, I would say, is the first thing to do,” he said. “The fact of liberalizing the patents, even temporarily, does not guarantee the production of the vaccine.”

While at the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a contract with drugs giant Pfizer/BioNTech for up to 1.8 billion doses of their patented vaccine had been concluded. Part of that supply is for EU exports to countries in need.

Influential voices support the push to waive patents, not least that of Pope Francis, who criticized putting “the laws of the market or intellectual property above the laws of love and the health of humanity.”

The World Health Organization, India and South Africa have all called for patents to be temporarily suspended.

The EU leaders’ comments came on the second day of an summit that featured a bilateral meeting between the EU and India, where authorities on Saturday said the pandemic killed 4,000 people in a single day.

In a joint statement, both sides said “global cooperation” was needed to fight the pandemic and they “supported universal, safe, equitable and affordable access to Covid-19 vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.”

“The vaccination process is not a race amongst countries but a race against time,” they said, underlining the EU’s contributions to the WHO-backed Covax facility and India’s role producing many of the vaccine doses distributed around the world.

World

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2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilatimes.pressreader.com/article/281870121315105

The Manila Times