Tag: waive

Categories
Business

EU uncertain of U.S. plan to waive IP rights

EU doubtful of U.S. plan to waive IP rights

French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference during the European Social Summit hosted by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union at the Palacio de Cristal in Porto.

JOSE COELHO | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – European leaders have doubts that surrendering intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, a recent US-backed proposal, is the way to go.

Instead, they criticized the US for not exporting Covid recordings.

“It’s not really about intellectual property rights. You can give the intellectual property to laboratories that don’t know how to make it (the vaccine) and they won’t be able to make it overnight,” said French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Friday ahead of a European meeting, according to CNBC translation.

In the meantime, Chancellor Angela Merkel also said: “I have already made it clear here that I do not believe that the release of patents is the solution to provide more people with vaccines.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday welcomed the US decision to support the vaccination patent exemption.

“It’s a good initiative, but I don’t think it’s enough,” he said in Porto, Portugal, while advocating expansion of production and distribution.

President Joe Biden surprised his European counterparts last week by announcing that the US government is in favor of abolishing intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines, citing the “exceptional circumstances” of the pandemic.

Health professionals, human rights groups and international medical charities believe that renouncing intellectual property rights is essential to urgently address the global vaccine shortage amid the pandemic and ultimately avoid prolongation of the health crisis. However, vaccine makers say this could disrupt the flow of raw materials while reducing investment by smaller biotech innovators in health research.

Today, 100% of vaccines made in the United States go to the American market.

Emmanuel Macron

French President

India and South Africa first submitted a joint proposal to the World Trade Organization in October to renounce intellectual property rights in Covid vaccines. Known as the TRIPS waiver, the proposal has been blocked by a handful of high-income nations such as the UK, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Canada, Australia, Brazil, the EU and – until last week – the US

France’s Macron insisted that the best way to increase global vaccination rates is for vaccine-producing countries to increase their exports.

“Today, Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients and vaccines. Today, 100% of vaccines made in the United States go to the American market,” he said, adding that Europeans “are the most generous”. on that front.

The U.S. doesn’t have an outright export ban on Covid shots, but it does use laws to ensure that country-made vaccines are only shipped overseas if it is determined that there are sufficient doses to vaccinate the American people.

The latest data from the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, shows that of the 400 million cans so far made in the block, 200 million have been exported to 90 different countries.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said that exporting vaccines “is currently the best way to address short-term shortages and shortages of vaccines around the world”.

“We should be open to this discussion. We should also look closely at the role of licensing, for example. These are important issues that need to be discussed. However, we should be aware of the fact that these are long-term issues.” “said von der Leyen during a speech on Saturday.

Categories
Health

Pope Francis backs Biden name to waive Covid vaccine patents

Pope Francis backs Biden call to waive Covid vaccine patents

Pope Francis, wearing a face mask, attends an interfaith prayer service for peace with other religious representatives at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, a church on the Capitoline Hill of Rome in Rome, Italy, on October 20, 2020.

Guglielmo Mangiapane | Reuters

Pope Francis advocated a waiver of intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines on Saturday, reiterating the U.S. government’s comments earlier this week.

World Trade Organization leaders recently called on member states to reach an agreement on possible vaccine patent waivers in hopes of removing barriers to increased vaccine production in developing countries.

President Joe Biden’s team approved the idea on Wednesday. Sales representative Katherine Tai said in a statement that she “supports the lifting of this protection for COVID-19 vaccines.”

At a global fundraiser on Saturday, Pope Francis said the world was infected with the “virus of individualism”.

“A variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which prevents vaccines from internationalism, for example,” he said in comments translated by Reuters.

“Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or the intellectual market or intellectual property above the laws of love and the health of mankind,” added the Pope.

Vaccine makers, whose share prices were affected by the comments earlier this week, have spoken out against the idea. Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, warned on Friday of unleashing a global race for raw materials that threatens the safe and efficient manufacture of vaccines.

Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel have also spoken out against the waiver, with the country’s BioNTech being a key partner for Pfizer in developing its vaccine. Germans and other European officials argue that making and distributing vaccines faster is critical to ending the pandemic.

“The limiting factor in the manufacture of vaccines is the production capacity and high quality standards, not the patents,” a Merkel spokeswoman said in a statement.

PhRMA, a pharmaceutical industry advocacy group, has called the waiver proposal “an unprecedented move that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and put safety at risk”.

To date, there have been nearly 157 million coronavirus infections and over 3.2 million deaths worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

—CNBC’s Rich Mendez and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this article.

Categories
Health

WHO chief urges world to observe U.S., waive Covid vaccine patent protections

WHO chief urges world to follow U.S., waive Covid vaccine patent protections

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference organized by the United Nations Union of Geneva Correspondents Association (ACANU) during the COVID-19 outbreak on July 3, 2020 at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland has been.

Fabrice Coffrini | Pool | Reuters

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Friday called on other countries, in particular the Group of the Seven Industrialized Nations, to follow the example of the US and support a request by the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patent protection for Covid-19 vaccines .

“The US announcement on Wednesday to support a temporary waiver of intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines is an important declaration of solidarity and support for vaccine justice,” Tedros said at a press conference. “I know that this is not easy politically, so I really appreciate the US leadership and we urge other countries to follow suit.”

The USA, which is strongly committed to the enforcement of intellectual property rights around the world, has previously spoken out against the waiver of patent protection for Covid vaccines.

President Joe Biden personally made the decision to change the US stance, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday. As a presidential candidate, Biden had supported the abandonment of the intellectual property of Covid vaccines.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, whose members include vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, firmly oppose the Biden government’s decision.

WHO chief Tedros on Friday also called on the G7 industrialized nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Great Britain, as well as the USA – to do more to facilitate the equitable distribution of Covid vaccines worldwide.

“For G-7, vaccines and vaccine equity are now the most important and immediate support we need,” said Tedros. “I think everyone knows what we should do to increase production capacity and then increase vaccination rates in all countries.”

According to the WHO chief, more than 80% of the more than 1 billion Covid vaccine doses distributed worldwide went to high-income countries, while low-income countries received 0.3%.

“That kind of gap is unacceptable,” said Tedros. “It is not only unacceptable on moral grounds, but also because we will not defeat the virus in a divided world.”

“It is in the interests of every country in this world to exchange vaccines and to contribute in every possible way to ensure the justice of the vaccines,” said the WHO chief. “Vaccine equity is not a charity. Vaccine equity is in everyone’s interest.”

The demand for the revocation of patent protection proposed by India and South Africa last October is facing an uphill battle at the WTO, which takes decisions by consensus among its 164 member states.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has spoken out against the attempt to temporarily forego vaccination patents. BioNTech, which developed a Covid vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer, is based in Germany.

“The US proposal to lift patent protection for Covid-19 vaccines has a significant impact on vaccine production as a whole,” said a spokesman for the federal government on Thursday. “The limiting factor in vaccine production is the production capacity and high quality standards, not the patents.”

After the US reversal, the governments of Canada, Italy, Japan and Great Britain did not take any clear public positions for or against the renunciation of the protection of intellectual property. French President Emmanuel Macron supported the US position.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the executive body of the European Union, did not accept the waiver plan and declared in a speech that she was “ready to discuss proposals for effective and pragmatic management of the crisis”.

Russia, which developed the Sputnik vaccine, has expressed support for the move and China is open to further discussion. The WHO announced on Friday that it has approved the emergency vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm.

According to The Associated Press, which quoted a Geneva-based trade official, around 80 WTO countries, mostly developing countries, have expressed support for the proposal.

“It’s also important to remember that abandoning intellectual property must go hand-in-hand with a transfer of technology and expertise for these elusive vaccines,” said Tedros.

Categories
Health

U.S. to debate wider distribution, India calls to waive patent protections

U.S. to discuss wider distribution, India calls to waive patent protections

Ground staff unload coronavirus disease (COVID-19) supplies from the United States at the cargo terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport on April 30, 2021 in New Delhi, India.

Prakash Singh | Reuters

WASHINGTON – White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday that the Biden government plans to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to India and other countries after millions of Americans received their doses.

In the past few weeks, India has been grappling with a staggering surge in new coronavirus infections. Over the weekend, India reported 400,000 cases a day for a cumulative total of 19,557,457 cases. This is evident from numbers compiled by Johns Hopkins. The spike may have been triggered by a highly contagious variant of Covid known as B.1.617, which was first identified in the country.

The variant has since been identified in other countries, including the United States.

On Friday, the White House announced it would limit travel from India as the country works to counter the rise in Covid-19 infections.

“We are rushing to help India,” said Klain during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation program.

Klain said the US has sent therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and protective equipment to the world’s largest democracy, as well as raw materials that are vital to vaccine production.

“Our US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, will go to the WTO next week to begin talks on how we can further distribute, license and distribute this vaccine,” he said when asked if the Biden administration would protect patents The coronavirus vaccine would loosen up.

Klain added that he expected the White House to have more to say on the matter in the coming days.

Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed with Biden about the revocation of patent protection for the coronavirus vaccine. The relaxation would give governments faster and more affordable access to the life-saving doses.

Last week, the Biden government announced that it would immediately provide the raw materials needed to manufacture coronavirus vaccines in India. The US response came after Britain, France and Germany pledged aid to India, the world’s largest democracy. Rich nations have come under fire in the past few days for hoarding the raw materials needed for the shots.