Today, Tuesday, the pharmaceutical industry proposed a system to allow more equitable access to vaccines and treatments during future pandemics, expressing its willingness to allocate doses and distribute them to low-income countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a huge disparity in vaccination rates between rich and less affluent countries, prompting calls from many countries to lift intellectual property rights over vaccines.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), which represents pharmaceutical companies around the world, has strongly opposed the claims, saying they will not solve the underlying problem.
Instead, the Geneva-based group has proposed a framework for governments and international organizations aimed at improving the “delivery of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics to priority populations in low-income countries, as determined by health authorities, during future pandemics”.
“So far, although vaccines are widely available, the rate of vaccination of the population in a number of countries does not exceed 10 percent,” said Thomas Queenie, president of the federation.
He added that rich countries should “be prepared to say that they cannot provide for themselves exclusively.”
The group, whose membership includes manufacturers of anti-Covid vaccines such as “Pfizer”, “Moderna” and “AstraZeneca”, called this proposal the “Berlin Declaration”.
“The success of the proposal requires open borders and no trade restrictions,” the group added.
It also called for the establishment of a network of clinical sites around the world to support the rapid deployment of new treatments and vaccines.
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