EU ready to discuss vaccine patent waiver, says Von der Leyen
The EU is willing to discuss a proposal, now backed by the US, to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday.
The head of the EU executive said the bloc’s vaccination effort was accelerating, with 30 Europeans inoculated every second, while exporting more than 200-million vaccine doses to the rest of the world.
“The EU is also ready to discuss any proposals that addresses the crisis in an effective and pragmatic manner,” Von der Leyen said in a speech to the European University Institute in Florence.
“That’s why we are ready to discuss how the US proposal for a waiver on intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines could help achieve that objective.”
SA and India made the initial vaccine waiver proposal at the World Trade Organisation in October, gathering support from a large number of developing countries who said it was a vital step to make vaccines more widely available.
The World Health Organisation said in April that, of 700-million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.
Until now, the EU has been with a group of countries, many of them home to large pharmaceutical companies, including Britain and Switzerland, that have opposed the waiver.
They argue it would undermine incentives for companies who have produced vaccines in record time to do so in a future pandemic.
They also say waiving patents would not instantly resolve the problem, with a lack of sufficient manufacturing capacity.
Vaccine making is also complicated, as evidenced by production problems of AstraZeneca, and would also require a transfer of technology, know-how and personnel.
The US said on Wednesday it supported the waiver, though trade chief Katherine Tai cautioned negotiations would take time.
Von der Leyen said that, in the short run, the EU called on all vaccine producing countries to allow exports and to avoid measures that disrupt supply chains.