Their comments follow White House support for waiving the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement under the World Trade Organization, which has effectively provided pharmaceutical companies monopoly control over vaccine production, potentially locking out poor countries from expanding their supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Waiving those protections could allow other countries to make copycat vaccines without fear or legal action or sanctions under global trade agreements.
Dr Anthony Fauci has rejected criticisms from drugmakers that lifting patent protections will prevent them from scaling up production.
“They can scale up,” he told ABC’s
This Week on Sunday. “You’ve got to give them credit – they’ve really just really done something that is really quite impressive in the way they’ve gotten their vaccine supply up and out for the rest of the world.”
Raf Casert And Barry Hatton
European Council President Charles Michel arrives for an EU summit at the Crystal Palace in Porto, Portugal, Saturday, May 8, 2021. On Saturday, EU leaders hold an online summit with India s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, covering trade, climate change and help with India s COVID-19 surge. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, Pool) May 08, 2021 - 5:24 AM
PORTO, Portugal - European Union leaders cranked up their criticism of the U.S. call to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents Saturday, arguing the move would bring no short or midterm relief. They instead urged Washington to lift export restrictions if it wants to have a global impact on the pandemic.
Aurélia Nguyen, Head of the Office of the Covax Facility, welcomes US support
Critics in the EU have changed their tune
When Biden first brought up the idea of vaccine patent waivers on Wednesday something that India and South Africa proposed to the World Trade Organization (WTO) last October EU leaders seem to have been caught off guard, with only Germany openly rejecting the proposal.
DW s Delhi bureau chief Amrita Cheema called Biden s support for patent waivers a big moral victory for the two countries in a matter of principle, citing the fact that India is the world s biggest producer of generic drugs.
The European Union and India agreed Saturday to restart negotiations on a bilateral free trade deal, eight years after their first attempt failed and as both sides seek alternatives to China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke via.