Covid-19: vaccine patent issue divides WTO member countries
The headquarters of the WTO in Geneva (illustrative image).
REUTERS / Ruben Sprich
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The vaccine race continues to rage.
New example Wednesday with Europe which announces the purchase of 4 million additional doses of the vaccine from Pfizer BioNTech.
Same thing in Switzerland, with 3 million more doses.
The World Trade Organization is currently discussing the possibility of suspending patents on anti-Covid vaccines to speed up their dissemination.
About 100 countries support the proposal.
But not the Western countries where most of the pharmaceutical groups are located.
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With our correspondent in Geneva
,
Jérémie Lanche
For supporters of the initiative, including India, the suspension of patents would allow more production sites around the world.
Poor countries, which struggle to receive vaccines, could be delivered quickly and affordably.
But according to the president of the International Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industry, what is lacking today to make more vaccines are raw materials and qualified personnel.
Thomas Cuéni affirms that the patents are not in question.
This patent argument not so important in the fight against the pandemic, South Africa does not believe.
Before the WTO, the country denounced the practices of an industry which maximizes its profits for lack of the general interest.
This is also what Doctors Without Borders says.
David di Lorenzo is coordinator for the NGO: “
This is what we see every time.
There is a fear that sets in, so we are going to make promises, talk about global solidarity and in the end, the usual mechanisms are put back in place and the profits come before human lives.
"
No agreement between member countries has yet been reached.
We are also very far from it.
Two new patent meetings are already scheduled by early June at the WTO.
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