Biden began the avalanche. Suddenly the rest of the world wants to patent a vaccine

There has long been talk of releasing covid-19 vaccines around the world. The invitations to him were originally from countries with a shortage of vaccines, led by India or, for example, the Republic of South Africa, and the World Health Organization had been lobbying for a long time.

However, for a potential WTO-level agreement, there has long been a lack of significant support from the most powerful countries, including the USA, which has vehemently rejected it under the government of Donald Trump. But the United States announced on Wednesday that in an effort to “get as many vaccines and vaccines as possible for as many people as possible,” Washington will push for a patent-sharing agreement.

The next day, the European Union, which had until now been against the United States, turned. Although she did not express her support explicitly, she stated that she was ready to discuss the matter in a relatively warm tone. “The European Union is ready to discuss any proposal that addresses this crisis effectively and practically,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

For example, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his direct support when he said that he “fully supports him”. Meanwhile, France, like many others, has been against it in the past. On the contrary, Germany insists on a somewhat negative attitude.

The Berlin government has sided with the pharmaceutical companies from the start, and nothing has changed. I notified Der Spiegel about this after a meeting on Friday between Angela Merkel and the co-founder of the German company BioNTech Ugur Şahin.

Berlin is one of the proponents that abolishing intellectual property protection can be counterproductive, as it is in itself a major source of further innovation and without it, the development of vaccines would not have been possible. Its extraordinary suspension of covid-19 vaccines could set a dangerous precedent.

A federal government spokeswoman said, “The limiting factor for vaccine production is production capacity and high quality standards, not patents.” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas added that Berlin is “open for discussion,” but that the main task is to secure production capacity and not to launch patents.

On the other hand, Russia expressed its direct support. “We are listening to an idea from Europe that I think deserves attention – which is to issue patents for all vaccines,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised broadcast. “Of course, Russia will support such an approach,” he added.

Russian authorities just registered the fourth vaccine at this time. After Sputnik V, EpiVakKorona and KoviVak scored, Sputnik Light was given, which would be administered in a single dose. Putin said that while Western countries have developed “innovative vaccines, Russia has the“ safest and most reliable. ”The Russian head of state said,“ It is as simple and reliable as a Kalashnikov assault rifle. ”

The UK position remains unclear. But the petitions are already pending on the government’s website. To date, more than 4,200 people have signed it. At least 10,000 are needed for the government to deal with it, and 100,000 signatures are needed for a parliamentary debate.

On Wednesday, New Zealand, for example, enthusiastically welcomed the move by the United States. The local agriculture minister wrote on Twitter that the state would cooperate in implementing the move.

European Union leaders discussed this issue at a meeting of the heads and prime ministers of member states on Friday afternoon or evening in Porto. It will likely be discussed at the joint EU-India summit this weekend. However, actual negotiations on an agreement with the WTO will likely take months.

Critics camp position on issuing patent list reports detailed on this Article, Which discusses why such a step would not necessarily be useful to increase vaccine production.