While the EU is prepared to discuss the lifting of patents at the World Trade Organization (WTO), it is far from convinced that this will quickly solve the problem of Covid-19 vaccine supply.
“At the moment there is no evidence on the table that intellectual property rights are a barrier, that they are a bottleneck. We have not had a single example where production capacity has been restricted because of intellectual property”, explained an EU official on Friday 7 May.
The EU says it is open to discussions on all options, including the lifting of patents. However, it reiterates that the problems identified so far relate to production capacity. It also maintains that the existing tools in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreements provide a serious response to the issue of patents.
As for US Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s announcement that she is in favour of lifting patents on vaccines, the EU considers that the US has yet to detail its position.
With EU leaders due to address the issue at the Porto summit on 7-8 May, Member States are more or less divided. The majority of them consider, like the European Commission, that intellectual property is not the core of the problem. However, they are not closing the door on this proposal, as are France and Spain. “The primary issue is not intellectual property. If you give the patents to laboratories that don’t know how to produce vaccines, they won’t produce them”, said French President Emmanuel Macron before the Porto summit.
For the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, the proposal to lift patents on vaccines is welcome, but not enough. In this sense, Spain published an informal document (https://bit.ly/3haeI70 : in Spanish) on 7 May combining the proposed suspension of patents with technology transfer, increased production and distribution capacity for Covid-19 vaccines.
WTO Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also takes the open position that the answer lies in a combination of technology transfer, flexibility on vaccines and increased cooperation and solidarity from the international community. Although positions are still far apart at the WTO, she told the Florence University Institute conference on 7 May that the US announcement would “give impetus” to the negotiations. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)