The government said on Friday that it has decided that it will support the sharing of vaccine recipes with poor countries. “Uplifting news”, says Norwegian People’s Aid – while Doctors Without Borders is skeptical.
– When the Minister of Foreign Affairs goes so high on the field ahead of the WTO meeting, it means an expectation that Norway will fulfill, and not be a passive spectator who only agrees with what the others agree on, says Erlend Grønningen in Doctors without borders VG.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt (Labor Party) told VG that the government has decided that Norway can support a patent exemption for patents on covid-19 vaccines of the World Trade Organization (WTO), if it is part of a compromise. They will work for this in the ministerial meeting in the WTO, which starts on Tuesday.
On number of countries in the global south, and former world leaders and Nobel laureates, have put pressure on easing vaccine patents so that more people can produce vital vaccines against the covid-19 virus.
US President Joe Biden also went out ahead of the WTO meeting on Friday night and called on the countries to stay agreed to revoke the patent rights. He referred to the recently proven variant in South Africa, writes the news agency Reuters.
– The news about this variant should make it clearer than ever why the pandemic will not be over until we have a global vaccination, Biden says in a statement.
Check out the differences in vaccine access in the graphic below:
But MSF is skeptical of the government’s move. Grønningen points out that the previous government, which did not go out and say that they would support a patent exemption, at the same time all the way said they worked for consensus.
– Working for a compromise sounds like the same as working for consensus. There is nothing particularly binding in the promise the foreign minister makes here, he says.
– Making a proposal is binding. To state that you want to support something if it comes is non-binding. Should they work to bring it forward as a suggestion, or should they agree when the others agree?
“Incredibly uplifting news”
Secretary General Henriette K. Westhrin of Norwegian People’s Aid, for her part, calls the signal from the government “incredibly uplifting news”
– Norway thus recognizes that patents stand in the way of getting out of the pandemic, in contrast to the Solberg government. The differences in vaccine access are extreme and the anger from developing countries is great. That Norway is now on the side of the poor in this conflict can contribute to us getting a solution, she writes in an e-mail.
Leader of Attac Norway, which works for stricter regulations of the international economy, is also positive to the signals now coming from the government:
– This is a very important step in the right direction, and we are pleased that the Norwegian government has finally published a position. We have been waiting for this for a long time, says Helge Skarrud, but continues:
Nevertheless, we and our international network of civil society organizations are concerned that only an exception is mentioned for patents for vaccines, not for intellectual property rights for vaccines, medicines and medical devices.
The original the proposal from South Africa, which has been locked for over a year because the countries have not been able to agree, also includes a patent exemption for medicines. MSF also believes that it is absolutely necessary to get a patent exemption for medicines as well.
– The fact that they do not talk about medication is also dramatic, because now we see that there are new medications that can help us out of this pandemic. Vaccines alone are not enough – iv has seen that. We need a whole toolbox of different measures
SV and Red: Not enough
Both SV and Rødt have previously made several proposals to the Storting that Norway must support the requirement to relax patents. SV’s foreign policy spokesperson Ingrid Fiskaa does not think the government is going far enough now.
– We see this as a positive step in the right direction. But that is simply not enough. If we are to fight the pandemic in the world and avoid new mutants that we see in South Africa now, then a much broader patent exception is needed than just the vaccines, she says.
Rødt leader Bjørnar Moxnes also says that the signal from the government comes at a high time, but that they are not going far enough.
– Unfortunately, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt says that Norway will not support patent exemptions for test equipment and drugs for the treatment of Covid. This means that the pharmaceutical companies’ profits are put before the test capacity that is absolutely necessary to prevent global spread of the virus. It will ultimately affect Norway as well, he says.
He demands that the Foreign Minister take a hard line in the WTO for exemptions from vaccine patents, and that the government turn to the issue of patent exemptions for test equipment and medicines.
– Will not the risk then be that you fail to land any compromise at all?
– You do not get a good compromise if you do not even go in to make the fair and necessary demands.
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