Before the EU and African Union foreign ministers meet in Rwanda next week, EU and African officials are still debating whether to abandon intellectual property protection for the COVID vaccine.
Officials said they have been in “vigorous negotiations” on how to increase the supply of vaccines to developing countries. The European Union and the United States, as well as a group of developing countries led by India and South Africa, have been lobbying for the abandonment of intellectual property rights (IP) for the COVID vaccine in the past year.
The removal of patent protection will allow countries to produce their own vaccine versions even for a limited time.
However, civil society organizations said that the latest EU proposal is far from meeting the conditions for allowing vaccine production.
Médecins Sans Frontières argued that the EU proposal “only focuses on the compulsory licensing of patents and does not address legal obstacles related to regulatory data and trade secrets. This is essential for alternative manufacturers to start rapid production, especially considering the original company Refuse to share their technology”.
MSF added: “It focuses on products, but completely excludes the reference to basic technologies, components, raw materials, processes and methods that are also protected by intellectual property (IP) and are equally important to start other companies’ production.”
The World Trade Organization hopes to reach an agreement on this issue at a ministerial meeting to be held in Geneva on November 30.
This issue remains low on the priority list of EU leaders. Leaders are expected to reach an unanimous communiqué at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (October 21-22), “calling for the rapid removal of obstacles to the global promotion of vaccines, and inviting the committee to further participate in the Contact the manufacturer directly in this regard.”
“This will enable member states to expedite the delivery of vaccines to countries that need it most. The EU will continue to support the production and use of vaccines in partner countries,” it added.
At the same time, the European Commission has pledged to provide funding for vaccine production centers in several African countries, and the plan may help deal with future epidemics.
However, the communiqué did not mention the vaccine exemption dispute.
At the same time, the impasse over patent exemptions and the slow delivery of excess vaccine donated by rich countries have led to a widening gap in vaccination rates between rich and poor countries.
According to a research published by the People’s Vaccine Alliance on Thursday, only 261 million doses (equivalent to 14%) of the 1.8 billion doses of vaccines promised by rich countries have reached low-income countries. Organizational composition.
At the same time, according to the report, of the 994 million doses of vaccine promised to the global vaccination system Covax, the EU and the United States are the world’s two largest donors, but only delivered 120 million doses.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
