Agree to reduce restrictions on exports of vaccines and drugs against COVID-19 is expected at a summit next Tuesday (15/6) the European Union and USA.
The draft of the joint text transmitted by Reuters underlines at the same time that the voluntary sharing of technology “is the key to increase production”,
In that text where changes can be made again, no reference is made to the compulsory revocation of vaccine patents, which US President Joe Biden has supported as a temporary solution to the global shortage of COVID-19 vaccines.
THE EU has repeatedly opposed the idea, which has the support of dozens of poorer countries.
Brussels submitted a less radical counter-proposal to the World Trade Organization last week, stressing that existing WHO rules allow countries to grant licenses to processing companies without the approval of the patent holder.
At an EU-US summit in Brussels on Tuesday, the two sides are expected to agree to set up a joint action group to boost production capacity for vaccines and medicines aimed at “keeping supply chains open and safeguarding, avoiding unnecessary export restrictions”.
The EU, according to the Athens News Agency, urges Washington not to block the export of vaccines and supplies needed to produce them. Biden is using the Defense Production Act (PDA) to put the US government first in the US market for vaccines and treatments and to control the supplies the country needs.
The draft also states that the action group will seek to expand global production of vaccines and medicines by “encouraging the voluntary sharing of know-how and technology on mutually agreed terms” – a significant shift from forcing pharmaceutical companies to to competitors.
A Task Force under the European Commissioner for Industry, Thierry Breton, is already meeting regularly with the US Task Force on COVID-19 chaired by Jeffrey Zienz to address production and marketing problems affecting vaccine companies.
CureVac, the German biotechnology company that develops the vaccine, has already received help to access materials from the US.
The joint action group aims to reinforce and formalize the work done so far, an EU official said.
The draft conclusions of the EU-US summit also reaffirm support for the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX program, which aims to ensure the fair distribution of vaccines worldwide.
Brussels and Washington are committed to the draft statement to “encourage more donors to make 2 billion doses of vaccine available worldwide by the end of 2021”.
The US has so far pledged to donate 80m of its overpayments to poorer countries and the EU at least 100m by the end of the year.
However, the work for the complete immunization of the world is expected to last. According to the text, the US and the EU “aspire to vaccinate at least two-thirds of the world’s population by the end of 2022.”
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