Support grows for easing COVID-19 vaccine patent rules, but hurdles remain

France joined the United States on Thursday in supporting an easing of patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines that could help poorer countries get more doses and speed the end of the pandemic. While the backing from two countries with major drugmakers is important, many obstacles remain.

The United States' support for waiving the protections marked a dramatic shift in its position. Still, even just one country voting against such a waiver would be enough to block efforts at the World Trade Organization.

With the Biden administration's announcement on Wednesday, the U.S. became the first country in the developed world with big vaccine manufacturing to publicly support the waiver idea floated by India and South Africa lastOctober at the WTO.

"I completely favour this opening up of the intellectual property," French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday on a visit to a vaccine centre.

ModernaInc. on Thursday said it believes countries around the globe would continue buying its COVID-19 vaccine for years even if patents on the shots are waived, noting that rivals would face significant hurdles in scaling up manufacturing. Last October, the U.S. pharmaceutical companysaidit would not enforce patents on its messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine during the pandemic.

Another mRNA vaccine developerechoed the sentiment that waivingintellectual property rights was not a solution.

WATCH |Biden backs waiving vaccine patents:

Biden backs waiving vaccine patents

3 years ago

Duration 3:35

The Biden administration has joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, amid a debate over lifting intellectual property protections.

"Patents are not the limiting factor for the production orsupply of our vaccine. They would not increase the globalproduction and supply of vaccine doses in the short and middleterm," said Germany's BioNTech, which produces thePfizer shot.BioNTech said it took more than a decade to develop its vaccines manufacturing process and replicating it would be difficult.

Another German company,CureVac, which hopes torelease final trial results on its messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)vaccine as early as this month, said patents were not to blamefor supply bottlenecks.

"Since mRNA technology has emerged as the key technology inthe fight against COVID-19, the world now needs the same rawmaterials in unfathomable amounts," a spokespersonsaid.

Like Moderna, CureVac saidit would notenforce its patents during the pandemic and that it knew of noother developer that would.

The International Federation of PharmaceuticalManufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) said the waiver proposal would invite new manufacturers that lack essential know-how and oversight from the inventors to crowd out established contractors.

IFPMAdirector general Thomas Cueni told Reutersthe way to kick-start low-income countries'vaccination campaigns was for rich countries to donate vaccines, rather than widen eligibility to young and healthy people athome.

Donations should be prioritized, Macron says

Even if patentprotections are eased, manufacturers in places like Africa are not now equipped to make COVID-19 vaccines so donations of shots should be prioritized instead, Macron said.

Many other leaders chimed in though fewexpressed direct support. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook that the U.S. announcement was "a very important signal" and that the world needs "free access" to patents for the vaccines.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the U.S. position "great news" but did not directly respond to a question about whether his country would support a waiver.

Canada's International Trade MinisterMary Ng told the House of Commons on Thursday thatthefederal government will "actively participate" in talks to waive the global rules that protect vaccine trade secrets.

International DevelopmentMinister Karina Gould saidthe U.S. support for waiving patents is "a really important step in this conversation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would support the waiver proposal.

In closed-door talks at the WTO in recent months, Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Norway, Singapore and the United States had opposed the waiver idea, according to a Geneva-based trade official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Some 80 countries, mostly developing ones, have supported the proposal, the official said. China and Russia two other major COVID-19 vaccine makers didn't express a position but were open to further discussion, the official said.

Brazil was the only developing country to oppose it, while China and Russia didn't express a position either way but were open to more discussions, the official said.

The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the 27-nation bloc was ready to talk about the waiver idea, but remained noncommittal for now.

German Health Minister Jens Spahnsaid all countries where vaccines are produced must be prepared to export it to others.

EU leaders said the bloc will start discussing whether they should join the U.S. move, possibly at a summit that starts Friday.