“The virus hasn’t gone away,” Merkel said. But the match on patent ownership that Germany wanted to see closed after the Oporto summit returned to the limelight in Rome, on the agenda of the G20 World Health Summit, forcing the Berlin government into defensive positions. While Prime Minister Draghi reopened the hypothesis of a “targeted and limited over time” suspension of patents on vaccines to support the most needy countries, Chancellor Merkel replied that she supported the Rome Declaration which provides for “a voluntary provision of patents and licenses ”from vaccine manufacturers. An opening or a polite way of answering “spades”?
At the last Porto Summit of the European Council the issue of patent liberalization had stumbled upon the adjective “fast”. The US believed that patent suspension was the “fastest” way to fight the pandemic in poor countries. Germany replied that the suspension would not speed anything up, because the bottleneck was in vaccine production, not patent protection. “The problem is not that someone is sitting on his patent and does not use it”, Chancellor Angela Merkel specified to the European Council “but it is that more people must be enabled to produce quickly”.
At the Health G20 in Rome, the new step forward: under the threat of the suspension of patent protection and the pressure of India and Africa – suggests Faz – the pharmaceutical companies Biontech-Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna have undertaken to sell at the price cost to developing countries 1.2 billion doses by 2021 and 2 billion by 2022, in addition to a certain number of doses donated by EU countries. Certainly, a concrete push on the accelerator to arrive at “fast” solutions, bypassing the thorny issue of patents. Better to sell at a discount rather than “sell” property.
But the patent issue thrown out the door came back through the window. In addition to quick solutions – it was pointed out – lasting solutions are needed, because the pandemic will not disappear with the first round of immunization and the supply of vaccines in developing countries remains an open question. Production in the world needs to increase, even and especially in the less developed areas of the world.
Taking the issue at a distance, the Chancellor has set as a goal that by 2040 60% of Africa will be equipped with facilities capable of producing vaccines. On the specific issue of patents, in a press conference on the sidelines of the G20, Merkel referred to the “voluntary transfer of patents and licenses” signed in the “Rome Declaration”, signed at Villa Pamphili, which is part of the Trips agreements ( Agreement on Trade Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and the Doha agreement. What does it mean? In the agreement closed in Doha in 2001, a form of “forced” transfer of a license is already envisaged, against compensation, in the event that a State absolutely needs to produce a vaccine at home. So this is not technically a new step forward, but to reiterate that the case of necessity is already foreseen by the agreements.
However, the question arises: did Merkel take a step forward or was it a false movement? “No softening of vaccine patents,” greeted a Bild title from the result of the Rome Summit.
If it is true that God is in the details, Merkel may have passed for a “hard position” and clearly contrary to the liberalization of vaccines what is in fact a more nuanced and mediating position. After all, “her” public in Germany would not have allowed her to escape further, especially under elections.
Certainly, the German resistance to the revocation of patent protection is a complex issue that is articulated on several levels, not a mere “will to power”, as many are quick to explain.
In the common perception of German citizens, the protection of patents is something established, it is not a cause for great debate. There is a deep-rooted and widespread idea of liberal democracy which also includes the defense of intellectual property rights. A recent survey by the Civey Institute for Spiegel found 54% of Germans opposed to the suspension of patent protection, while 34% said they were in favor. Germany, especially in its conservative substratum, identifies with the idea of being “the Pharmacy of the world” and at the juncture of the pandemic and with the successes of Biontech (which owns 50% of the ownership rights on the covid Biontech-Pfizer vaccine but 100% of the rights to the technologies to develop it), this perception, clouded by decades of globalization, is back in vogue.
Beyond the cultural reasons, behind the German resistance there are at least three aspects: there is a European strategy that passes through relations with India, a German national strategy towards China and therefore consequently with the USA and then c ‘is the national interest.
INDIA
Faced with the epochal covid crisis that involved India, there was a pressing request from New Delhi to liberalize vaccines. By coincidence in time, the informal EU-India summit took place just the day after the European Council meeting in Porto, in which Merkel, Draghi and Macron discussed the Biden proposal on liberalization. The summit with India had the difficult task of resuming a dialogue that had stalled for years: “we are looking for a resumption of negotiations on a free trade agreement and the opening of negotiations on an autonomous investment protection agreement” explained the deputy of the European Commission Vladis Dombrovskis on the eve of the summit in Handelsblatt. The outcome of the meeting was indeed positive and “led to renewed momentum on the free trade agreement and on a separate investment protection agreement,” Merkel commented hotly.
Now it cannot be excluded that in the dialogue with India the vaccine and the support of the European pharmaceutical industry have been an important lever to resume agreements interrupted until recently. “India has exported vaccines like the European Union, even though the country has enormous needs. This is why we talked about cooperation in this sector and I could very well imagine an even closer cooperation between the European Union and India in the production of vaccines ”. In this case, the intellectual property on the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine contributed to unlocking and consolidating a European strategy with India, a long-term plan that could consequently also have an impact on the autonomy of EU maneuver towards the United States and China. An advantage that all of Europe could benefit from.
CHINA
Against Beijing, Germany has always had more feet in shoes. National, European and Atlantic interests converge and are constantly trying to find a square. Something similar happened in the case of the Biontech vaccine. The Mainz-based company has been developing the vaccine with the Chinese company Fosun for over a year and the authorization from the Chinese pharmaceutical authorities is expected to arrive by July, Biontech co-founder Ugur Sahin said in a meeting with the foreign press in Germany. The Sino-German company is expected to produce one billion doses at full capacity, Sahin said on 10 May.
Also in this case the vaccine could be for Germany and perhaps for Europe a lever to be used in relations and relations with China, a tool that allows to maintain an area of autonomy.
NATIONAL INTERESTS
Certainly in defending patents the interest of part of Berlin is there and it is undeniable. First of all, there is the immediate interest of the federal government to defend its own investment: the Bund allocated 750 million last September for the pharmaceutical companies that were developing vaccines. Of this amount 375 million was allocated to Biontech, the Tübingen company CureVac had 230 million (but its vaccine has not yet been authorized by the EMA) and a third party to Idt Biologika of Dessau, which now produces together with AstraZeneca.
However, protecting does not mean returning the investment. The Mainz-based company presented positive accounts for the first time this year. Faced with a total turnover of 12.4 billion, net profit is approximately 1.1 billion compared to a loss last year of 53 million euros. Sahin of Biontech said that the money borrowed as support from the federal government will not have to be returned but will be reinvested in new production sites, such as the one under development in Singapore and in general in the expansion towards the Asian market.
On the other hand, it is very likely that Germany will benefit from the agreements made in the last EU-India meeting when it returns to speak with New Delhi in next week’s bilateral meetings.
Vaccine diplomacy is a tool in everyone’s hands and patents are the necessary master key for Germany.