Corona vaccines: will the battle for patents prolong the pandemic?

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Expand production facilities and issue compulsory licenses for national needs: These emergency measures are currently being discussed in the European Union to eliminate supply bottlenecks for coronavirus vaccinations.

But two countries want to go one step further.

This Thursday, a proposal by India and South Africa to completely revoke patent rights for corona vaccines is being discussed in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The reasoning states that patents are partly responsible for global vaccine shortages, especially in poorer countries that cannot afford expensive bilateral contracts with pharmaceutical companies.

But the richer countries, including Germany, are fighting back - although the proposed exception rule should only apply until the end of the pandemic.

India plays a special role in the pandemic.

The “pharmacy of the world” produces 60 percent of all global vaccines.

However, the recipes come from abroad and are largely protected by patents from the major pharmaceutical companies.

This was also the case during the corona pandemic.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) produces a billion vaccine doses to supply India and other emerging and developing countries.

The recipe comes from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

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However, licensing for production in India is not enough for the government.

She calls for patents and intellectual property rights to be completely suspended by the end of the pandemic.

More countries should be given the opportunity to produce vaccines, tests, ventilators and other corona drugs themselves instead of waiting for deliveries from industrialized countries.

In mid-January, the world's largest vaccination campaign started in India to vaccinate its own 1.3 billion population.

Just a short time later, the country began exporting its corona vaccines.

Two million doses of vaccine went to Brazil and Morocco.

The Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal were also supplied with vaccines from India, and many more deliveries are planned.

300 million vaccinated Indians by summer

India has started its corona vaccination campaign.

Around 300 million people in this huge country are to be vaccinated free of charge by the summer.

A big challenge with an open end.

Source: WELT / Nicole Fuchs-Wiecha

India and South Africa had already submitted an application to the WTO to suspend patent rights in October.

Since this was unsuccessful, they now want to try again: At the meeting of the so-called TRIPS Council, which deals with intellectual property at the WTO, the proposal comes up again.

Industrialized countries hold against it

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India and South Africa are not alone in their demands.

More than half of the members of the WTO as well as organizations such as the UN Commission on Human Rights, Unesco, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International support the proposal.

But industrialized countries like the USA, Great Britain and Germany, where the leading Covid vaccines and drugs are developed, hold against it.

The application by India and South Africa is "in the opinion of the federal government not expedient," said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Justice to WELT.

"Adequate protection of intellectual property rights provides an important market-based incentive for private companies to develop drugs and vaccines."

Representatives of the pharmaceutical industry agree.

A letter from the international pharmaceuticals association IFPMA states that they share the goal of equitable access to drugs, but intellectual property rights are not an obstacle, but are a basic requirement for innovation.

Critics of the application also say that a patent release would be of little use, as there would not be sufficient production capacities in many countries.

"Pandemic will not be over in summer"

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“That's not true,” says Elisabeth Massute.

She is a political advisor at Doctors Without Borders.

The international aid organization has been providing access to essential medicines for 20 years.

“In South Africa there is certainly capacity to produce vaccines.” The country would benefit from a patent release, also because a coronavirus mutation is raging there and in neighboring countries.

What it looks like in other countries is difficult to say.

“Pharmaceutical companies do not disclose where they have production,” says Massute.

It is clear that there are fewer factories in the Global South, but it is precisely there that it is worth building them.

"The pandemic won't be over this summer."

Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke in April of last year about “building up production capacities for such a vaccine, in as many places in the world as possible”.

A corona vaccine is a "global public good".

The federal government refers to the Covax vaccination initiative, which it supports with 100 million euros.

However, this has still not started, partly because vaccines were bought up in bilateral deals.

According to the non-governmental organization Oxfam, richer countries like Germany have already secured 53 percent of all vaccines, while some of the world's poorest countries will have to wait until 2024 until a critical mass of their populations will be vaccinated.

EU advocates compulsory licenses

EU Council President Charles Michel suggested last week not to release the patents, but to create compulsory licenses for vaccines.

This would enable competing companies to produce for a fee.

The Federal Government also advises the WTO countries that are behind the motion of India and South Africa.

Instead of a general patent release, "the issuing of compulsory state licenses as a means of pressure" is recommended in order to bring about the "voluntary granting of licenses by the rights holders".

However, it is not that simple, says Massute from Doctors Without Borders.

Granting a compulsory license is a "complex and lengthy process".

It would have to be concluded separately for each product.

In the pandemic, however, not only vaccines will be needed, but also tests, ventilators and masks.

Compulsory licenses are also only valid for national needs; it would not allow one country to export to a neighboring country.

Contain the pandemic faster

"Compulsory licenses are for national health emergencies, not global pandemics," says Massute.

A bundled revocation of all patents for Covid technologies, as requested by India and South Africa, would prevent valuable time from being lost and help contain the pandemic more quickly.

This is in everyone's interest, warns WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “The longer we wait to make vaccines, tests and treatments available to all countries, the faster the virus will spread, the more virus mutations can arise, the greater is the likelihood that today's vaccines will become ineffective and the harder it will be for all countries to recover. "