[1]
Press release
THE EU IS PLAYING A DIRTY GAME IN WTO VACCINES-TALKS
_Brussels, 9 March 2021_
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND SOME EU-MEMBER STATES ARE PLAYING DIRTY IN THE
WTO-DEBATE ON PATENTS AND ACCESS TO COVID-19 VACCINES. THAT IS SHOWN TODAY
BY NEW RESEARCH [2] OF LOBBY-WATCHDOG CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY (CEO).
While EU top-officials still claim that vaccines should be “a common
good”, they use false arguments when defending their resistance against
the proposal for a waiver on intellectual property rights (1) on all
COVID-19 products under WTO-rules (TRIPS Agreement).
This proposal to speed up notably covid-19 vaccines production was put on
the table by India and South-Africa with the support of a high number of
other countries. But it is being brushed of the table by the EU-bloc and
other rich countries. This week there will be new WTO-negotiations in
Geneva on the issue of the TRIPS-waiver, whereby the EU has the power to
make or break the proposal (2).
The European Commission claims that there is no need for such a waiver
because the current TRIPS Agreement already “allows exceptions” to make
space for ‘compulsory licensing’ in times of emergency. But based on
CEO-research into trade agreements, EU-accession agreements and IP
enforcement reports, it is clear that the EU has done the opposite: It has
done everything in its power to strengthen patent rules and making
flexibility of deviating from WTO-rules basically impossible .
The European Commission has waged a multifaceted, non-stop, global campaign
to reduce the scope of the so called flexibility, hand in hand with EFPIA,
the European lobby-group for the pharmaceutical industry. By constant
pressure in any possible context, the EU has for instance pushed for
introduction of rules on 'data exclusivity' in trade agreements. (3).
These 'data exclusivity' provisions prevent generic producers in the South
from making use of the exceptions under the TRIPS agreement. Furthermore,
there is plenty of evidence to suggest that even if the EU had not worked
hand in hand with the pharmaceutical lobby to systematically undermine the
exceptions, they would not suffice in the current situation.(4)
KENNETH HAAR, RESEARCHER AT CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY SAID:
“The refusal by the EU to agree with the TRIPS waiver is irresponsible
behaviour. In light of the role of the EU in the trade negotiations in the
past decades, the arguments used now by the EU are simply hypocritical. The
richest trading bloc in the world has been waging a ‘war on accessible
cheap drugs’ globally for over two decades or more. In that sense the
covid-19 vaccines showed the EU learned nothing from the debate on access
to HIV-medicines.”
“The EU’s protection of Big Pharma monopoly on vaccines could have dire
consequences for protecting people in the Global South and for curbing this
pandemic (5). Charity via initiatives as Covax (6) may be heart warming,
but they are not a credible policy strategy. We need to boost production
through speedy licensing and sharing of technology. This is not the time to
worry about patents on vaccines that only saw the light of day due to
public funding anyway.”
ENDS
You'll find the research ‘EU RISKS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH IN ITS PROTECTION
OF BIG PHARMA MONOPOLIES’ here [2].
For more information or interview requests, please contact:
Kenneth Haar: kenneth.h...@corporateeurope.org
Tel. +45 – 23 60 06 31
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. The proposal by India and South Africa for a waiver on intellectual
property rights:
https://crm.corporateeurope.org/civicrm/mailing/url?u=5153&qid=917150
2. The EU carries a decisive responsability to make sure the Global South
has a fair chance of having acces to enough covid-19 vaccines. The WTO
TRIPS Council (all EU member states represented) are to decide what to
recommend to the General Council concerning the proposal by India and South
Africa. The latter will have the final word in a limited period that can be
used to consider a waiver. If the proposal cannot be adopted by unanimity
by the TRIPS Council, 75% of the votes will suffice. But with 27 EU votes
against, that is not possible. If the EU were to support the waiver, it
might pass.
3. For a pharmaceutical company to have its product approved by the
authorities, they have to hand in considerable data about it, not least
they have to put the results of lengthy and expensive tests to scrutiny by
public health authorities. Few generic companies, if any, have the
capacity, the apparatus, do produce these data. When the EU, then, asks
other governments to make sure that health authorities keep those data
confidential for years – the “data exclusivity” - then it is
impossible in most cases to make use of a compulsory license during that
time.
4. As Ellen ’t Hoen, expert in medicines and law puts it in the
CEO-review: “Compulsory licensing will not help in the case of vaccines.
Generic producers will need access to technology, they will need to have
information on production processes. That is not covered by the current
exceptions.”
5.
https://crm.corporateeurope.org/civicrm/mailing/url?u=5154&qid=917150:
Campaigners warn that 9 out of 10 people in poor countries are set to miss
out on Covid-19 vaccination in 2021.
6.
https://crm.corporateeurope.org/civicrm/mailing/url?u=5155&qid=917150
: The WHO director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told the
body’s recent executive board that 44 bilateral deals had been done in
2020 and a further 12 this year. Canada, for example, has pre-ordered nine
doses per citizen. The US has pre-ordered 7.3 doses per citizen and the UK
5.7. “Even as they speak the language of equitable access, some countries
and companies continue to prioritize bilateral deals, going around COVAX,
driving up prices and attempting to jump to the front of the queue. This is
wrong,” said Tedros.
Corporate Europe Observatory,
https://crm.corporateeurope.org/civicrm/mailing/url?u=5148&qid=917150 [3]
Rue d'Édimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 893 0930, e-mail: c...@corporateeurope.org
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