The signatories stated this in an open letter addressed to US President Joe Biden.
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These include former French President François Hollande, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as Polish former President Lech Walesa and former Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer and former Slovak government chief Iveta Radičová.
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India and South Africa filed a motion to suspend patents for covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October last year. In the following months, another 60 countries joined. The signatories call on Biden to do the same for his country.
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According to the call, intellectual property protection currently restricts the production and distribution of covid-19 vaccines, especially to less affluent countries. “At the current pace, many states will achieve collective immunity against covid-19 by 2024 at the earliest,” he said.
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The call is also addressed to Biden because public investment by the United States has greatly contributed to the rapid development of covid-19 vaccines. “But if the United States supported the suspension of patents, Europe would also have to take its share of responsibility,” said French President François Hollande.
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According to the signatories, the United States and other developed countries would also benefit from a faster rate of vaccination. Indeed, the uncontrolled occurrence of coronavirus in poorer countries, which receive only a small number of vaccines, increases the risk of new mutations that are resistant to vaccination. This also increases the risk of recurrence of the coronavirus epidemic.
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