EU to consider waiving IP rights too

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders said on Thursday that in the wake of the US backing patent waivers for Covid-19 vaccine technology, the 27-nation bloc immediately will start discussing whether they should join such a move.

The leaders’ first opportunity to mould a common view will come as soon as a two-day summit in Porto, Portugal, that starts Friday.while many insist that waiving patents would only go part way toward making vaccines available and likely in the midterm 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, Macron insisted that the immediate priority for wealthier countries should be first donating more vaccine doses to poorer countries.

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 waiver on intellectual property protection for Covid vaccines could help” end the crisis. “In the short run...we call upon all vaccine-producing countries to allow exports and to avoid measures that disrupt supply chains,” she said, hinting at so-called vaccine nationalism that has limited or made nonexistent any exports from nations including.