EU hits out at US stand on vaccine patent waiver
Print Edition
European Union leaders cranked up their criticism of the United States call to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents on Saturday, arguing the move would yield no short-term or intermediate improvement in vaccine supplies and could even have a negative impact.
On the second day of an EU summit in Portugal, the European leaders instead urged the US to lift export restrictions if it wants to have a global impact on the pandemic.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 think, in the short term, that it鈥檚 the magic bullet,鈥 European Council President Charles Michel said.
French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that giving any priority now to a discussion of intellectual property rights 鈥渋s a false debate.鈥
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, home to many Big Pharma companies, went the farthest of all, cautioning that relaxing patent rules could harm efforts to adapt vaccines as the coronavirus mutates.
鈥淚 see more risks than opportunities,鈥 Merkel said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe that releasing patents is the solution to provide vaccines for more people.鈥
Instead, the leaders joined previous EU calls for US President Joe Biden to start boosting US vaccine exports as a way to contain the global COVID-19 crisis, insisting that move was the most urgent need.
鈥淚鈥檓 very clearly urging the US to put an end to the ban on exports of vaccines and on components of vaccines that are preventing them being produced,鈥 Macron said.
He mentioned Germany鈥檚 CureVac, saying it could not produce a COVID-19 jab in Europe because the necessary components were blocked in the US. Hundreds of components can go into a vaccine.
Merkel said she hoped that 鈥渘ow that large parts of the American population have been vaccinated, there will be a free exchange of (vaccine) ingredients.鈥
鈥淓urope has always exported a large part of its European (vaccine) production to the world, and that should become the rule,鈥 the longtime German leader said.
While the US has kept a tight lid on exports of American-made vaccines so it can inoculate its own population first, the EU has become the world鈥檚 leading provider, allowing about as many doses to go outside the 27-nation bloc as are kept for its 446 million inhabitants.
The EU has distributed about 200 million doses within the bloc while about the same amount has been exported to almost 90 countries.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
