The Report, which is currently scheduled for plenary discussion in the European Parliament on 11th of July, also calls for setting rules for transparency in the relationship with pharmaceutical companies and reforming HERA, the health emergency agency. It acknowledges the predominant role of the public in the development of Covid-19 vaccines, noting that this has not been matched by control over pricing and distribution. Contradictions exist in the Report, especially with respect to intellectual property rights.
The Inequalities and Diversity Forum’s proposal to create a European public infrastructure is recommended by the Report on Lessons Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic and Recommendations for the Future, which “calls on the Commission and the Member States to create a large-scale, mission-oriented, public European health R&D infrastructure…” (par. 169, final recommendation 601). This is the result of the work of a broad alliance of scientists, doctors and active citizenship organisations over the past few years.
The final text, which is currently scheduled for plenary debate in the European Parliament on 11th of July, also proposes to redesign HERA (the European Commission’s directorate for health emergencies), transforming it into a more autonomous agency, with a larger budget, a broader mission and greater transparency.
The Report has also remarked what emerged from the independent study, drawn up for the Special Committee by Massimo Florio and Simona Gamba (University of Milan) and by Chiara Pancotti (CSIL): the financial risk for vaccines manufacture was borne mainly by the public, i.e. by taxpayers, rather than by the pharmaceutical industry, and therefore the Commission and the Member States are called upon to ensure that in future this contribution ‘produces adequate benefits in the public interest’ – a strong, albeit implicit, criticism of the Commission’s management. It is also acknowledged that there was insufficient transparency in the relationship with pharmaceutical companies in the months of the pandemic and that new clear rules are needed, namely the obligation for companies to declare public contributions received.
“The political significance of the recommendation to create a European public infrastructure for vaccines and medicines is high. An important positive signal. However, it runs the risk of being lost, given the lenght of the Report (617 points) of the Report. It sometimes returns contradictorily to the same issue, and it seems at times to point to intellectual property rights as a driver of vaccine development, while also acknowledging that patents have restricted access to vaccines worldwide. More courage is needed to change the model of biomedical innovation“, said Massimo Florio, member of ForumDD and first proponent of the European public health infrastructure.
The Report, while acknowledging that patent exclusivity can limit the market and access to medicines (para. 493), states that the patent system incentivises companies to innovate in the public interest. While reiterating the European Parliament’s position (not taken up by the Commission) of temporarily suspending patents on COVID-19 vaccines to allow access to production in poorer countries, it somehow argues that compulsory licensing may be inadequate to increase the availability of vaccines.
“It is only a first step, but the result obtained shows that there are no unbeatable Goliaths even at the level of Europe as a whole“, commented Fabrizio Barca, co-coordinator of ForumDD, who continued: “A strong pressure was exerted by most backward sections of the pharmaceutical to turn the Report in a praise for their actions, ignoring the unfair and monopolistic prices that the public sector was made to pay and the refusal to ensure free transfer of knowledge to the whole world. Yet, a reasonable message has mostly prevailed. passed. Now we must multiply our monitoring and pressure to unravel ambiguities about patents when based on research and public funding“.
A petition has been one of the tools of our campaign. Now, signing the petition is a top priority in view of the EU Parliament plenary session on this Report and of the following concrete steps to be taken by the Commission and Member States in order to respond to the Parliament’s call to action.
A 7’ documentary describing facts and the ForumDD proposal is also available. And it 1’ trailer.
* Photo by Frederic Köberl – Unsplash