EU to discuss US vaccine patent plan
EUROPEAN Union leaders have said that in the wake of the US backing patent waivers for Covid-19 vaccine technology, the 27-nation bloc will discuss whether they should join such a move.
The leaders’ first opportunity to establish a common view will come as soon as today at a two-day summit in Porto, Portugal.
While many insist that waiving patents would only go part of the way towards making vaccines available and probably in the mid-term only, French president Emmanuel Macron said he “completely” supports opening up intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines as “a global public good”.
At the same time, Mr Macron insisted that the immediate priority for wealthier countries should be first donating more vaccine doses to poorer countries.
EU nations have long insisted they were in the vanguard of helping the rest of the world obtain vaccines, and have looked with a weary eye at how the United States effectively banned such exports itself.
The move to support waiving intellectual property protections on vaccines under World Trade Organisation rules marked a dramatic shift for the US, which had previously lined up with many other developed nations opposed to the idea floated by India and South Africa.
While the EU did not echo the US position, it generally welcomed president Joe Biden’s move. EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that “we are ready to discuss how the US proposal for a waiver on intellectual property protection for Covid vaccines could help” end the crisis.
Ms von der Leyen said, however, that other issues should take centre stage. “In the short run... we call upon all vaccine-producing countries to allow exports and to avoid measures that disrupt supply chains,” she said.
She was hinting at so-called vaccine nationalism.
Many hope the initiative of the Biden administration will help poorer countries get more doses and speed up the end of the pandemic. But EU nations pointed out other problems even if vaccine restrictions were lifted.
“The question is to raise capacity in the fastest way possible,” said a diplomat from an EU nation.
“Ending patent restrictions is only one element. You will also need the raw materials. How will the supply chain follow? What about the quality of production locations? So we have about 300 other elements that affect this.”
Meanwhile, Covid-19 infections in India have hit another grim daily record as demand for medical oxygen jumped seven-fold and the government denied reports that it was slow in distributing life-saving supplies from abroad.
The number of new confirmed cases breached 400,000 for the second time since the devastating surge began last month.
The 412,262 cases yesterday pushed India’s tally to more than 21 million. The health ministry also reported 3,980 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 230,168.
Eleven Covid-19 patients died as the pressure in the oxygen line dropped suddenly in a government medical college hospital in Chengalpet in southern India on Wednesday night, possibly because of a faulty valve, it was reported.