Germany expresses doubts about revocation of patents for Covid-19 vaccines / Article

The German government has expressed doubts about the initiative to suspend patents for Covid-19 vaccines. The government’s official statement states that “intellectual property protection must remain a key driver of innovation”. This position is expected to complicate discussions in the World Trade Organization (WTO), where the United States and a number of other countries have expressed support for the revocation of patents.

The WTO-led initiative to suspend patents for Covid-19 vaccines, led by India and South Africa, in order to increase the pace of vaccine production in developing countries, has received significant support for further consideration. The issue had not moved forward in the past, as it was fiercely opposed by the administration of former US President Donald Trump, speaking with one voice to domestic pharmaceutical giants, but the new Democratic administration and Democratic politicians in general are much more open to the vaccine relocation of production to other countries.

“New variants of the virus are emerging, and all the money we spend on the aviation and hospitality industries to fully open up our country will be wasted if there is another wave of pandemics in the world. So we need to make sure that pharmaceutical companies are ready to share vaccine prescriptions to would help countries around the world to produce and supply their own vaccines, “said Jan Cekauskas, a Democrat in the United States.

A similar position has been taken by China, which has previously had a sharp conflict with the United States on other intellectual property issues, as well as with the World Health Organization.

However, the position of the European Union (EU) remains cautious. The head of the European Commission (EC) has stated that the EU is “open to discussions” on the issue of patents.

The German government, meanwhile, has emphasized that the current factors limiting the supply of vaccines are not patents, but production capacity, which is currently being actively developed both in the countries of origin of vaccines and with partners in countries such as India and elsewhere. The big pharmaceutical companies also agree.

“What we really need to do is speed up the supply of vaccines to poor countries, because what we are seeing now is a huge injustice – countries like the United States are already vaccinating healthy twenties, but supplies to countries in Africa have actually stopped due to India’s dramatic situation. Revoking patents is a simple but wrong answer to a complex problem: what is needed is to demand that rich countries distribute vaccines in the coming days and weeks, not five months after we all have been vaccinated. “We need to look at trade barriers to supply and look at how to improve efficiency with regard to bottlenecks in supply chains,” said Thomas Kueni, Director General of the IFMPA Pharmaceutical Federation.

At the same time, the freezing of patents requires the unanimous opinion of WTO members, which can take months to formulate. According to experts, even if unity is achieved, the start of production of additional vaccines may take several more months and will most likely only start in 2022.

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