Germany skeptical over vaccine patent waiver | DW News

Germany is sceptical about calls to lift coronavirus vaccine patents. Some experts believe sharing the formula of vaccines can mean faster inoculations. The US is backing the idea. The European Union says it’s open to discussion. But the German government says it's essential to support innovation by protecting intellectual property.

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[LuminousSpace]

money is far more important that human lives, that is what they were saying

[tysloo]

production and quality is just an excuse, have impact or not doesn't matter, any help is better than no help

[rphtauqeerulqayyum]

Yes patent protection is very important but the problem with covid-19 is
"No one is safe until everyone is safe"

[Akshay-bzjn]

Fact check
Bayer is a German company and novaltis is swiss company
They are not from the developing nations

[avk]

People are literally dying and they want to make money people are going to remember this

[jimmybutler]

Just ask why they can not be held to law suits for reactions of their vaccines that harm the public citizens? and protected by government immunity for them...

[CutiePi]

I think a waiver is fine. The companies that developed the vaccines were heavily subsidized and receive a lot of funding to do so. Letting them limit the vaccine production to line their pockets is immoral. The waiver could be temporary so after the crisis state is dealt with they still have the majority of the production and can make their sweet $.

[CompelledFungus]

€120 billion has been paid by the people of the world to big pharma, that covers all costs they incurred during research and development plus the fact Ireland gives every company with R&D in Ireland with a tax credit so the Irish people have over paid for this vaccine.

[tanaysaxena]

All those who are refusing patent waiver are money hungry scums.

[nicholasheimann]

Any company with enough money to mass-produce quality vaccines can afford a licensing agreement. Especially if the terms are favorable.

[ashishsawant]

Entire World is watching EVERYONE's behaviour.

[RichardLLowe]

Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance-wealth, a greater career, purpose is the result of hard work and hustle over time.

[TCN]

Oooh this is precious: the answer from the IFPMA director ( aka Big Pharma lobbyist in chief ):
1. Yes Covax for poor countries is broken because India is out ! But also because the whole scheme was defective : developed countries governments had closed the deal with Big Pharma, to hoard both the profits and the vaccines. They wanted no new competitors in the South - hence the patents - so they counted on India to supply the rest of the world, with AZ vaccines manufactured under license. Now that India is broken, China is unwilling, Big Pharma turned on the rich governments crying foul - blaming them for not sharing the vaccine supplies. But they have been - and still are ! - unwilling to share vaccine know-how, which would allow national manufacturers with good quality to emerge everywhere (Latin America, Asia, Africa) to boost the supply.
2. Yes ingredients and raw materials are limited, but they now go automatically to existing technology. Waiving the patents would allow other companies to do research to expand the options of ingredients, to refine the manufacturing process etc. But Pfizer and AZ now just want to sit on the cash cow and do nothing. They are afraid of competition and want to stifle it. Not concerned about how many die waiting for treatment.
3. 30 year of development for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine technology - that means also 30 years of taxpayer money supporting innovation - because Big Pharma do not invest in new, risky technology unless it is subsidized by the states. But that also shows how brutal this pandemic is: no effective reliable treatments or vaccines - except for bleeding edge vaccine technology. How irresponsible of big pharma to think "business as usual".

[ccchan]

Should not be waived. The Biontech and others still needs fund to continue develop new covid-19 vaccine especially for the double mutation virus. We are in democracy and capatalism. We are paying for our healthcare. Can our
Government give free medical healthcare to all its residents

[jamestucker]

It's not profit, it's greed that kills.

[nitinkumar]

Patents should never ever be given to a company if that company was funded by the government which is in turn funded by tax-payers.

[lordlee]

For those who don’t understand the politics and economics behind this, European companies are not that advanced in life sciences any more. They need a lot of investment in order to catch up. So not being able to make money on vaccines would deter investment. US on the other hand, is still more advanced, of course that’s because a lot of immigrant engineers work in the American pharmaceutical industry, including tons of Chinese. The American companies already made a lot of money from selling the vaccines to the US government, whose money come from tax payers like me, so they are pretending to be generous as they already made their money back

[sandersdev]

Ambiguity and moral dilemma. Peoples health in a region, world health in general. It might help the world. And also it might make a screw driver technology wannabe 'super' power to become more deluded about its power, while its political actors belonging to parties like BJP, YCP, MIM, TRS continue building empires of greed and grudge, fooling the outside world.

[sachinmathew]

Weren't many pharma companies were paid huge taxpayer money to boost vaccine development?

[marxistsociety]

I disagree.. The world needed the vaccines and we all must share our work to achieved greater outcomes.