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Angela Merkel has been opposed to the Biden administration’s proposal suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, saying it would have “serious implications” for vaccine production worldwide.
The German chancellor said the limiting factors in vaccine supply were “production capacities and high quality standards, not patents”.
“Intellectual property protection is a source of innovation and should continue to be so in the future,” he added.
Merkel responded to President Joe Biden’s chief business adviser, Katherine Tai, who said that while the United States “strongly believes” in intellectual property protections, they would support a waiver of these rules by Vaccines against covid-19.
A waiver would allow any pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world to manufacture “imitation” vaccines without fear of being sued for infringement of intellectual property rights.
“This is a global health crisis and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in a statement on Wednesday.
The United States would “actively participate” in the World Trade Organization negotiations to draft the text of a waiver, he added, noting that such discussions would take time to take into account the complexity of the issues involved.
Washington’s proposal has put the EU behind it. In recent months, the bloc has resisted a push by India and South Africa to the WTO for a vaccine patent exemption.
The American movement received a good response from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. He said the EU was “ready to discuss” how the proposal could help address the current crisis “in an effective and pragmatic way”.
But he also insisted that the priority was for vaccine-producing countries to lift barriers to exports and address supply chain disruptions.
Von der Leyen contrasted the EU’s approach with that of some allies: “Europe is the only democratic region in the world that exports vaccines on a large scale.” The United States, a large vaccine-producing country, has reserved most of its own harvest crops for domestic use.
The US proposal received a more positive response from Vladimir Putin, who said Russia, which manufactures the Sputnik V vaccine, would support the measure. “A pandemic is an emergency. . . Russia would certainly support this approach, “the Russian president said.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it hoped “to be willing to hold active and constructive discussions with all parties within the WTO framework to reach an effective and equitable agreement.”
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said he was open to the idea of a waiver of intellectual property rights, but “the reality is that bottlenecks are neither the price nor the patents.”
“You can transfer intellectual property to pharmaceutical companies in Africa, but they have no platform to make mRNA vaccines,” he said.
The idea of a waiver is also opposed to BioNTech, the German start-up, the joint venture with Pfizer brought to market the first RNA-based vaccine. The company said it would not alleviate current supply shortages and warned of the risks of opening manufacturing to inexperienced mRNA producers.
“Together with Pfizer, we also work with various organizations to support the supply of vaccines to populations around the world. And we will continue to offer our low- or low-income countries our vaccine at a non-profit price, ”BioNTech said in a statement on Thursday.
“However, patents are not the limiting factor for the production or supply of our vaccine. . . The mRNA manufacturing process is a complex process developed over more than a decade. “
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, said vaccine manufacturers would have greatly expanded their capacity before any new players could make a real difference in supply.
“If you start today, you have to start hiring people. These vaccines do not fall from the sky, “Bancel told the FT US Pharma and Biotech Summit on Thursday.” There is no mRNA industry. . . When we hire people who come from traditional pharmaceuticals, we have to train them in the art of mRNA ”.
Matthias Gainyer, general partner at venture capital firm MIG, one of BioNTech’s first investors, said a waiver of the patent would discourage future investments in the sector.
“If the US / EU / WHO suspend patent protection, they will lose a lot in the long run, that is, the willingness of private investors to invest in these companies, many years before it becomes clear whether their technologies will be successful or not. no, ”he said. dit.
“This would mean the collapse of an entire industry that has just proven to be the only one that can offer a sustainable solution to this global medical, economic and social crisis. Without private investors, this innovative power will no longer exist in the future. What will we do then? ”
Bristol chief executive Myers Squibb described the US government’s support for the resignation as “very worrying” during an interview at the FT US Pharma and Biotech Summit on Thursday.
“Our industry depends on intellectual property protection to invest in R&D and make the necessary investments to deal with crises like Covid,” Giovanni Caforio said. “The evolution of the last 24 hours is very worrying and disappointing.”
In addition to being important during the coronavirus crisis, Caforio said IP protection is “critical for some of the areas of greatest medical need where BMS invests as cancer.”
Additional report by Leila Abboud in Paris
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