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Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) apparently phoned the boss of the corona vaccine manufacturer Biontech, Uğur Şahin, on Thursday.
This is reported by the "Spiegel".
The phone call was about a possible patent release for the corona vaccine and possible steps to better supply poorer countries with vaccines.
The goal is not short-term help, but a sustainable supply of vaccines, also for future pandemics.
According to the report, it was unclear whether Şahin reinforced the Chancellor's critical stance on a possible patent release.
The insistence on patent protection had long been Merkel's stance, it was said from government circles.
After a surprising move by the USA, the revocation of patent protection for corona vaccines is currently being discussed.
The US government had proposed that pharmaceutical companies should temporarily lose patent protection for their corona vaccines.
Manufacturers around the world could then produce the vaccines without paying royalties to the companies that developed the agents.
The European Union was also open to this on Thursday.
The pharmaceutical companies reject the proposal.
No clear signals from Berlin
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Different signals came from Berlin on Thursday. "The limiting factor in the manufacture of vaccines are the production capacities and the high quality standards, not the patents," said a government spokeswoman in Berlin. The federal government is working in many ways on "how we can improve production capacities within Germany and within the European Union, but also worldwide, and the companies concerned are doing this too," said the spokeswoman. At the same time, she emphasized the need for patent protection: "The protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and must remain so in the future."
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) initially remained vague.
"Delivering vaccine to the whole world is the only sustainable way out of this pandemic," he said.
Above all, the further expansion of production facilities and more exports from countries in which production takes place are decisive.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, on the other hand, was more open to softening patent protection.
"If that is a way that can help more people to be supplied with vaccines faster, then that is a question that we have to ask ourselves," said the SPD politician.
Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU), however, criticized the advance from Washington.
"Only releasing a patent does not mean a single additional vaccination box," he told the "Spiegel".
“The patent alone is not enough.
You also have to know how to produce. "
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There was also clear criticism from the virologist Alexander Kekulé: "If the patent is released, even more manufacturers will fight over it," he said on the MDR podcast.
Instead, he called for better coordination of vaccine production.
For example, an organization under the umbrella of the United Nations is conceivable.
The Greens, on the other hand, welcomed the move.
"Joe Biden has made the start, now the Federal Government and the EU Commission must stand behind the emerging and developing countries at the next meeting of the World Trade Organization and suspend the patents for diagnostics, drugs and other Covid-19 technology," said the Deputy Greens federal chairman, Jamila Schäfer, of the "Augsburger Allgemeine".