Brussels wants to force pharmaceutical companies to give up their patent for coronavirus vaccines at an “affordable” price. This is what the European Commission has proposed this Friday, which wants governments to be able to force companies to assign their patent at an affordable price as a way to accelerate their production and increase their distribution. The proposal is for the World Trade Organization (WTO), which meets in July to discuss this matter.
The Community Executive considers that the voluntary transfer of patents is “the most effective instrument to facilitate the expansion of production and share the necessary technical knowledge.”
But it considers that “the pandemic is a circumstance of national emergency”, so that in case the pharmaceutical companies refuse to share the patent of their vaccine to a company willing to manufacture it, governments can force the laboratories to transfer it to a affordable price”.
In addition, the Community Executive wants this obligation to include the export of the vaccine to countries that do not have the capacity to produce it.
No to full liberation
The Community Executive rejects the idea of countries such as the United States, India or South Africa to completely release the patent , because the pharmaceutical companies would not obtain any type of remuneration and the Commission wants to maintain the necessary levels of protection so that it can continue to innovate against new variants of the virus or future pandemics.
In order not to go to the extreme of forcing laboratories to share the rights, Brussels believes that to increase the distribution of vaccines, producing countries have to lift their export restrictions and keep the supply chain of the components necessary to produce them open. .
“The EU proposes concrete solutions in the short and medium term to guarantee universal access at affordable prices,” said Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen , who will discuss this proposal with G7 leaders next week.
