German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the idea to abandon patents for vaccine against COVID-19. Reports about it Reuters.
According to her, the suspension of patents will not solve the problem of lack of vaccines: the issuance of licenses can provide product quality. Merkel is also convinced that countries need “ingenuity and innovative potential of companies.”
At the end of April, pharmaceutical companies appealed to the US government with a call not to abandon the patent for the vaccine against coronavirus. White House supported this initiative.
In October 2020, India and South Africa called on states producing vaccines from coronavirus, temporarily abandon their patent for them. This step was supposed to provide access to the vaccine residents of poor countries. The World Health Organization and more than 60 countries supported this initiative. However, the administration of the former US President Donald Trump together with the European Union, Great Britain and Switzerland opposed the proposed measure.