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By Paolo Cappelli
06 May 2021 Brazil has exceeded fifteen million infected with infections and is close to 417,000 covid-19 deaths.
In India another 364 thousand infections and 3915 deaths in 24 hours.
This is the context in which to place Biden's yes to the proposal by 100 countries of the world to suspend patents on vaccines.
Difficult to disagree?
No, because the interests at stake are strong: a few days ago the New York Times told us that Pfizer, which joined the Covax project with 40 million vaccines given to the poorest countries, took home pre-tax profits of 900 million dollars in the first quarter.
And because the effectiveness of the initiative is questioned by many.
Who are we talking about?
SZ
Vaccine patents: Merkel contradicts Biden
The US president supports a radical change and wants to give up the intellectual property of Covid-19 vaccines. Berlin and Brussels, on the other hand, rely on exports to poorer countries. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has reacted skeptically to the US initiative to temporarily renounce vaccine patents in order to accelerate their global distribution. "The protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and must remain so in the future", a spokeswoman for the government of the Süddeutsche Zeitung said yesterday. "The limiting factor in the production of vaccines are the production capacity and the high standards of quality, not patents ". The government spokesperson said: "We are working in many ways on how to improve production capacities in Germany and the European Union, but also globally, and the companies concerned are doing so too. "The European Union has also reacted with little enthusiasm to the advance of United States Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) and Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), as well as the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, say they are open to a discussion on the partial revocation of intellectual property protection. However, they almost unanimously stressed that the priority should be to increase production capacity. The EU heads of state and government want to address this issue today at the summit in Porto, Portugal. The federal government supports thegoal of making Covid-19 vaccines available worldwide, the government spokesperson said. Which puts a billion euros on the plate.
FAZ
Merkel against temporary suspension of vaccine patents
More than 100 states in the WTO want the suspension, including the United States since Wednesday. However, implementation may take some time. What counts is to increase production
op: In search of the fair world of vaccinations, by Reinhard Mueller
Sounds good: rich countries ensure that big pharmaceutical companies waive the patents on their vaccines so that the whole world is protected. After all, it is in everyone's interest, including the best-protected affluent countries, for the pandemic to be contained around the world. This is in the national and global interest. However, even in the pandemic, the interests are by no means convergent. The gap is great when it comes to having and not having, of life and death. The accusation that corporate profits are more important than a swift end to the pandemic is not new. However, German patent law recognizes that patents are also of public interest. One must ask what is at stake and what such a step really entails.Pharmaceutical companies have invested heavily to produce effective vaccines quickly, even with state subsidies. The right to intellectual property must not be underestimated. The incentive to take risks must be maintained. Ultimately, patent suspension alone is not enough. So far there is a lack of money and the will to better distribute the vaccines that exist. The virus will keep the world busy for a long time to come. Vaccine production must take place in multiple places.The virus will keep the world busy for a long time to come. Vaccine production must take place in multiple places.The virus will keep the world busy for a long time to come. Vaccine production must take place in multiple places.
Le Grand Continent
Index of world vaccination apartheid
on the abscissa the passing of the months, on the ordinates the percentage of vaccinated out of the total population: the disparities between richer and less developed countries under current conditions will be accentuated long before diminishing in spring 2023, they write Justin Sandefur and Arvind Subra manian
The consequences of this apartheid are deeply felt in Brazil, India and perhaps soon in other countries. But we mustn't make any mistakes about it. This apartheid was inherent in the design of the immunization policy - a component of that policy, not a dysfunction. The production capacity has been designed to supply almost exclusively Western markets, with an approach based on guaranteed intellectual property which limits its diffusion. And donor money was never enough to buy doses to cover much of the developing world. There is no doubt that the governments of developing countries, India in particular, have mismanaged their national response to vaccines, hence the responsibility for theVaccinal apartheid does not fall exclusively on the shoulders of rich countries. India has erected entry barriers for foreign vaccine manufacturers, has not placed orders and has also created uncertainty for its domestic production. And it is unclear whether an increase in international purchases by India would have led to anything other than a zero-sum reallocation globally. Our goal here is to escape this zero-sum calculation.Our goal here is to escape this zero-sum calculation.Our goal here is to escape this zero-sum calculation.
Times of India
After the yes from the US, the EU and New Zealand are also ready to discuss the suspension of patents on vaccines.
Canada is also moving in the same direction, a tough negotiation on the horizon
TAZ
That crazy communist threatens our capitalism!
Washington accepts the request coming from 100 countries of the world, Brussels slows down
France pushes, Germany slows down, the EU Commission does not want to commit: with its push to issue patents on corona vaccines, the US has embarrassed Europeans. Shortly before Saturday's EU-India summit in Porto, no clear line emerged. The issue will be addressed at the summit, but decisions are expected. So far, the line agreed by Merkel and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen applies: mass production in Germany and Europe, as well as exporting all over the world, but patents are taboo The European Commission is also about to conclude a new mega-agreement with the German vaccine manufacturer Biontech, 1.8 billion doses, with the possibility of exporting vaccines to third countries, even as donations if necessary.Von der Leyen doesn't want this deal to break right now
Opinion
Vaccine patents: so much ado for so little
Convince Big Pharma to give up intellectual property: Biden is in favor. But is this really the way to eradicate the virus in the global south?
"There is a need to establish a control and traceability system for manufactured vaccines which may require lengthy negotiations," says Jérôme Peigné of the Institut Droit Santé. "Above all, the revocation of patents does not solve the problem of production capacities", warns Emmanuel Combe, guarantor of competition. The first weeks of the global health crisis have shown in many countries their extreme dependence on China, in terms of masks, respirators and more. More than a year later, the situation is more or less the same for vaccines. Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax licensed their technologies to Indian manufacturers as early as 2020, and so did the Russians for Sputnik. As long as India was not in an emergency, rich countries relied on us as a global supplier.But now with the need to vaccinate 70% of its population, or 950 million people, production for the rest of the world, especially the poorest countries, is reduced to a bare minimum. In short, we need to increase production, this is the current problem.
Handelsblatt
Biontech patent dispute
The United States supports the suspension of the patent for vaccines. The EU doubts that this is the best way to fight the pandemic. Therefore, rather than waving the rag of patents, it would be advisable to speed up and increase production capacities in developed countries to export these doses to countries in need. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told Handelsblatt that the EU is ready to discuss a derogation. But the most important thing, he said, is "to get companies to work together and make sure that production can be increased". There is also considerable doubt in Berlin that the granting of the patents will help overcome the global vaccine shortage. But the international pressure on Europe and Germany is increasing
Financial Times
The pharmaceutical industry fears that Biden's patent suspension will set a dangerous precedent. Concerns about loss of intellectual property rights and impact on innovation, but WHO head praises White House
Stéphane Bancel, head of Moderna, said a patent waiver "will not help deliver more mRNA vaccines to the world faster in 2021 and 2022, which is the most critical time of the pandemic," adding: "There is no production capacity. of inactive mRNA in the world ". "Securing vaccines quickly will not be the result, and worse still, it establishes the principle that companies that have invested in new technologies will run the risk of having them taken away." The actions of large Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers have been hit. Shares of BioNTech, listed in Frankfurt, lost 14% yesterday, while Moderna and Novavax closed between 3% and 6% in New York, Sven Borho, a managing partner of OrbiMed Advisors: "manufacturers are long-term worried that this is a foot in the door - 'OK, we did it with Covid-19, let's do it with the next crisis, and the next one', perhaps for a patent for a cancer drug . They fear it is a mechanism that lays the foundations for future action. "
Tagespost
Bar on the left.
The first months in the Biden White House confirm the fears of many German conservative Christians
Wall Street Journal
Sobering, Biden's could be the worst presidential economic decision since Nixon's wage and price controls.
In one fell swoop, it destroyed tens of billions of dollars of U.S. intellectual property, set a destructive precedent that will reduce pharmaceutical investment, and forfeited America's lead in biotech, a key growing sector of the future.
Biden renounce an American triumph of innovation and a great opportunity for soft power: Biden throws it all away.
The global number of covid-19 deaths at a 2020 high
The center of the global Covid-19 pandemic has shifted decisively to low- and middle-income countries, fueling disease and deaths on a scale that current trends indicate could quickly outstrip the 2020 world budget. 1.4 million deaths from Covid-19 worldwide as the virus tore apart Latin America and parts of Asia, according to data from the University of Oxford.
With an increase in deaths recorded globally by about 13,000 a day, the budget of the virus looks set to overcome in a few weeks the 1.8 million deaths recorded throughout 2020.
By the Editorial Staff
La Tercera (Chile)
Kamala Harris confirms visit to Mexico and Guatemala on 7 and 8 June to address the issue of immigration
They will be the first countries that US Vice President Kamala Harris will visit since taking office. The news came after an online meeting between Harris herself and the Guatemalan president, Alejandro Giammattei. On Friday he will also virtually meet Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador: “With Harris we will talk about" migration and proposals to tackle the migratory phenomenon ". The visit to Mexico will take place immediately after the federal election day called for June 6. López Obrador and Giammattei met on Monday and Tuesday in Mexico as part of an official visit by the Guatemalan president, during which they signed an agreement to reduce poverty and immigration.For his part, Harris made a commitment during his meeting with Giammattei to manage the migration crisis with a "human and effective" perspective and the Central American president made a commitment to increase the number of border security personnel by strengthening the borders. The Biden Administration is facing a sharp increase in migration, people coming mainly from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. This increase is creating a complicated situation in the White House, taking into account that the president during the election campaign had spoken out in person by promising to change the immigration policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Therefore, Biden has tasked Harris with leading efforts to combat this migration crisis since he is,in his words, "the most qualified person" to do such a delicate job.
kommersant.ru
Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine registered in Russia
A single-component vaccine against the Sputnik Light coronavirus with an efficacy of 79.4% has been registered in Russia, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced. According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, it will be used for people aged 18 to 60. The price of the injection abroad should not exceed 10 dollars. "Sputnik Light is the first component (recombinant human adenovirus serotype 26 (rAd26) of the Sputnik V vaccine, the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus. The effectiveness of the single component Sputnik Light vaccine is 79.4%", - yes reads on the website of “Sputnik.” During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that Sputnik Light will be used for people aged 18 to 60.He noted that the vaccine will be allowed to go into circulation after price registration and other necessary approvals. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said using the Sputnik Light vaccine will accelerate the formation of the population's immunity to the coronavirus. "The registration of the fourth Russian vaccine expands the available arsenal of drugs for the prevention of COVID-19 and will accelerate the formation of a sustainable collective immunity," the minister said. "Sputnik Light requires no special storage or logistics and is affordable at less than $ 10. The single inoculation regimen allows you to immunize large numbers of people in a short period of time and break down epidemiological peaks," the website says. of the vaccine.The drug has been cleared for use and will go into circulation by January 1, 2022.