The European Union should push for suspending intellectual property rules for coronavirus vaccines to ramp up domestic production as manufacturers persist in delivery delays in disregard of contracts, Laura Ferrara, a European Parliament member from Italy's Five Star Movement party, told Sputnik
GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) The European Union should push for suspending intellectual property rules for coronavirus vaccines to ramp up domestic production as manufacturers persist in delivery delays in disregard of contracts, Laura Ferrara, a European Parliament member from Italy's Five Star Movement party, told Sputnik.
The EU spat with Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca over vaccine delays took another turn this week after Italy, in coordination with the EU, blocked a shipment of 250,000 coronavirus shots bound for Australia. On Friday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio confirmed that the bloc would keep holding up vaccine exports until manufacturers honored their obligations. Ferrara, a member of the minister's party, offers to explore one more possibility to tackle vaccine shortages.
"Pharmaceutical companies cannot act depending on the circumstances: they have legal and even moral obligations to European citizens. The vaccine belongs to everyone and for this reason we are fighting for the suspension of patents so as to facilitate European production that responds to and also prevents the dangerous variants of the coronavirus," Ferrara said.
Since the EU partially paid for the development of some vaccines, it might seek shared licenses with the producers, she continued. That would also pave the way for producing generic vaccines and boosting the immunization campaign.
"AstraZeneca does not respect the contractual obligations signed with the European Commission, and the delays in the distribution of vaccines put the European vaccination campaign in crisis. The Italian move to block exports to Australia is unshakable," Ferrara, who is a substitute in the EU parliament's delegation for relations with Australia, opined.
Canberra, meanwhile, has asked the bloc to reverse the decision.
