Geneva
France joined the United States on Thursday in supporting an easing of patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines that could help poorer countries get more doses and speed the end of the pandemic. While the backing from two countries with major drugmakers is important, many obstacles remain.
American support for waiving the protections marked a dramatic shift in the country s previous position, and many thought it could lead to a breakthrough, drawing cheers from activists and complaints from Big Pharma. Still, even just one country voting against a waiver would be enough to block efforts at the World Trade Organization.
Image: Viv Miley/Green Left
It is hard to adequately describe India right now as the daily death toll from COVID-19 reaches 3700 people. News headlines describe it as an “apocalypse”. They are not wrong.
In Delhi alone, one person is dying of COVID-19 every five minutes. But it’s not only Delhi and Mumbai that are desperate for help. The second wave of the pandemic is ripping through small villages and other parts of the country, like West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh my home state.
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At the time of writing, more than 300,000 cases are being reported daily and more than 210,000 people have died from COVID-19.
May 6, 2021 Share
Several world leaders on Thursday praised the U.S. move to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines for poor nations by suspending patent protections on the shots. But it wasn’t clear if that would actually lead to the measures being lifted and what it would mean if they were.
Activists and international institutions cheered but Big Pharma fired back after the U.S. reversed course Wednesday and called for a waiver of intellectual property protections. If even just one country votes against a waiver at the World Trade Organization, it would be sunk.
The Biden administration move made the U.S. the first country in the developed world with big vaccine manufacturing to publicly support the waiver idea floated by India and South Africa in October. And the vocal support that followed from French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday suggested that countries were reassessing their positions.
Last modified on Thu 6 May 2021 09.59 EDT
The head of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the bloc is âready to discussâ a US-backed proposal for a waiver on the patents for Covid-19 vaccines and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he was âabsolutely in favourâ of the plan as pressure built for a move that could boost their production and distribution around the world.
Pharmaceutical companies reacted with anger, and some countries with private astonishment, at the Joe Biden administrationâs decision on Wednesday to back the temporary suspension of vaccine patent rights. One diplomat accused the US of grandstanding and coming up with crowd-pleasing simplistic solutions to long-term problems.