STUFF
In a press conference on Sunday, Ardern said the world could not afford to have “vaccine nationalism” right now.
The European Union s ambassador to New Zealand has pushed back at claims of vaccine nationalism, saying the union s strong-arming of pharmaceutical companies will provide needed “transparency” to Covid-19 vaccine distribution. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday said the European Union (EU) was “wrong” to require vaccine producers to seek authorisation before exporting vaccines, a move aimed at enforcing pre-purchase agreements which the EU says are not being honoured. “The world cannot afford vaccine nationalism right now,” Ardern said. The EU’s effort has been described as “unhelpful” by the World Health Organisation, and fuelled fears across the world that access to vaccines will be restricted.
+Undoctored
Media release from Medicines New Zealand
Monday 1 February 2021, 09:50 AM
Medicines New Zealand sees ‘vaccine nationalism’ as a significant threat to the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines to all countries
Medicines New Zealand, the industry association representing companies involved in the research, development and manufacture of modern medicines and vaccines, is extremely concerned over the reports that the European Union (EU) via the European Commission has introduced export restrictions for COVID-19 vaccines.
“Medicines New Zealand understands any Government’s need to have access to COVID-19 vaccines in as short a timeframe as possible for its people. However we are getting increasingly worried that the measures proposed by the EU and its member states could be highly disruptive and impact the biopharmaceutical industry’s efforts to have billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine available to the world in record time” said Dr Graeme Jarvis, CEO of Med