Germany has opposed the US call to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines for poor countries by removing patent protections on the jabs.
A spokeswoman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “The protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and must remain so in the future.”
She said Germany is focused instead on how to increase vaccine manufacturers’ production capacity.
Activists and humanitarian institutions cheered after the US reversed course on Wednesday and called for a waiver of intellectual property protections on the vaccine.
The decision ultimately is up to the 164-member World Trade Organisation, and if just one country votes against a waiver, the proposal will fail.
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Biden sends shares in Pfizer and Moderna PLUMMETING after he backs waiving Covid vaccine patents to boost world supplies
M.L. Nestel
Updated: May 6 2021, 19:51 ET
M.L. Nestel
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SHARE prices for big pharma companies Pfizer and Moderna nosedived on Thursday after the Biden administration endorsed “the waiver” of Covid-19 vaccine patents.
The move would afford developing countries a lifeline to produce and inoculate populations with generic versions of the vaccines.
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President Joe Biden has backed a waiver to share pharmaceuticals Covid-19 vaccine intellectual property information with developing countries to help inoculate populationsCredit: Getty
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai went public against objections by the major corporations, to nix the intellectual property of vaccines given the dire circumstances brought on by the widespread deadly disease.
Pharma federation IFPMA says US support for patent waiver ‘disappointing’
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GENEVA, May 6, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations expressed disappointment Wednesday at the United States’ decision to support a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines.
“As we have consistently stated, a waiver is the simple but the wrong answer to what is a complex problem,” the lobby group said in a statement, describing the US move as “disappointing”.
“Waiving patents of COVID-19 vaccines will not increase production nor provide practical solutions needed to battle this global health crisis,” it continued.
Instead, IFPMA argued, governments should be focusing on eliminating trade barriers as well as “addressing bottlenecks in supply chains and scarcity of raw materials and ingredients” for producing Covid-19 vaccines.
“I completely favour this opening up of the intellectual property,” Macron said at a vaccine centre. However, like many pharmaceutical companies, Macron insisted that a waiver would not solve the problem of access to vaccines. He said manufacturers in places like Africa are not now equipped to make Covid-19 vaccines, so donations of shots from wealthier countries should be given priority instead. Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca – all companies with licensed Covid-19 vaccines – had no immediate comment, though Moderna has long said it will not pursue rivals for patent infringement during the pandemic.
Christophe Archambault/AP
French President Emmanuel Macron has embraced the idea of waiving patents but says it won’t solve the problem of access to vaccines.
updated: May 06 2021, 20:04 ist
France joined the United States on Thursday in supporting an easing of patent and other protections on Covid-19 vaccines that could help poorer countries get more doses and speed the end of the pandemic. While the backing from two countries with major drugmakers is important, many obstacles remain.
The move to support waiving intellectual property protections on vaccines under World Trade Organisation rules marked a dramatic shift for the United States and drew cheers from activists, complaints from Big Pharma, and a lot of questions about what comes next. Washington had previously lined up with many other developed nations opposed to the idea floated by India and South Africa in October.