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EU policy chief defends bloc’s stance on vaccine IP waiver
As many countries in the world see a COVID-19 "resurgence" and many developing countries continue to struggle in the early stages of their vaccination drives, the EU foreign policy chief said that the hotly debated vaccine patent waiver wasn't necessarily the solution while offering little in the way of an alternative.
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he European Union has defended its hesitation on the proposal to waive intellectual property (IP) rights for COVID-19 vaccines, with its foreign policy chief arguing that countries could still boost production through bilateral agreements.
The proposal to temporarily remove IP protections for coronavirus vaccines received a major boost last month, when the United States expressed support for its negotiation at the World Trade Organization (WTO) following calls from developing countries to share the technology behind the life-saving jabs.
But the European bloc remains among the ranks of developed economies still hesitant to democratize proprietary vaccine technology, a stance that has called into question its commitment to provide equitable vaccine access.
The EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, who is also Vice President of the European Commission, defended the bloc’s position during his Indonesia visit this week, saying that the bloc was ready to discuss any solution while expressing doubt that the existing proposal would boost worldwide vaccine production.
“The waivers for intellectual property rights can be a solution, but having the property right does not mean you are going to produce tomorrow. You need to have the industrial capacity, a lot of skills and know-how,” Borrell told reporters in a limited interview in Jakarta as he wrapped up his visit on Thursday evening.
“And to produce a vaccine is not like producing a soap,” he continued, stressing that building nonexistent scale and production capacity would “take time”.
Read also: 'Vaccine nationalism': Is it every country for itself?
The former Spanish foreign minister said the EU was already moving forward in increasing production capacity at factories in Europe, which is one of the world’s largest vaccine exporters. It was also looking into the possibility of boosting production elsewhere.
“We can export more and we have a plan to boost the production in Africa, where it is much needed. Africa only produces 2 percent of the vaccines they are using, and this can be done without waiting to have an agreement on the intellectual property,” he said.
'Complementary'
Borrell's comments come as the EU is reportedly preparing a counterproposal that would better safeguard pharmaceutical patents.
According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the alternative plan seeks to lift export restrictions on vaccines and their raw materials, expand manufacturing capacity around the world, and make it easier for countries to use existing rules to override patents in some cases.
Before word of the EU plan emerged, WTO member countries had submitted a revised proposal expanding on the original ideas submitted by India and South Africa. That proposal applies the waiver beyond vaccines to cover COVID-19 treatments, diagnostics, medical devices and protective equipment, along with the materials and components needed to produce them.
It also says the waiver should last for "at least three years" from the date it takes effect, after which a possible extension is to be determined by the WTO General Council.
The revised proposal currently has the support of 63 countries, including Indonesia, which has been a staunch supporter of global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Read also: Indonesia cautions against ‘vaccine nationalism'
Agustaviano Sofjan, the Foreign Ministry’s director for trade, commodities and intellectual property, said that the Trade-Related Aspects of IP Rights (TRIPS) Council held an open-ended informal meeting on Monday to discuss the revised proposal.
While Agustaviano acknowledged that the EU had indicated it would submit a counterproposal, he declined to comment before he had seen the text. He also suggested that the two proposals could be complementary.
“It should not conflict with the TRIPS waiver proposal and can be discussed in parallel. So the discussion of the waiver proposal will continue to be encouraged for advancing at the next TRIPS Council on June 8 to 9,” Agustaviano told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Uneven distribution
However, he also agreed with Borrell’s view that the patent waiver would not automatically allow developing countries to start immediate production. This especially applied to countries that did not have the necessary technical know-how and physical capacities, which fell outside of the scope of the TRIPS negotiation, he noted.
In an article published online on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said “there were manufacturers with capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines and other health products at factories in Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, India and Israel, but they are unable to contribute because they do not yet have the right licenses”.
"The waiver by itself will not automatically result in widespread and diversified manufacturing, but it will ease complex global rules governing IP and exports and give governments freedom to collaborate on technology transfers and exports without fearing trade-based retaliation," the rights watchdog said.
Read also: Indonesian government promises big, then falters in vaccine procurement
Despite their unprecedented speed of development and the involvement of various pharmaceutical firms around the globe, COVID-19 vaccines remain scarce at a time when key manufacturing countries are seeing a resurgence in transmissions.
Meanwhile, mass vaccination programs are neither widely nor evenly spread among the 220 countries and territories affected by the pandemic, with Our World in Data recording 209 that have reported vaccine rollouts as of June 3.
With an estimated population of 450 million, the EU had secured more than 2.3 billion doses from six vaccine producers. This is more than the 2.1 billion doses already administered to the global population as of June 3, according to AFP.
The bloc has defended the advance purchases, at four times the continent’s population, saying they were intended to ensure it had enough supplies to inoculate its people.
Borrell claimed at a joint press statement with Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Wednesday that the EU had exported 200 million vaccine doses globally and that its member states had recently agreed to donate another 100 million doses.
He said the bloc was also providing financial support for the COVAX Facility, a multilateral initiative promoting global vaccine equity, particularly for countries with little to no access to them.
