Later in the next few weeks the European Parliament will vote on the Report on Lessons Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic and Recommendations for the Future. The Forum on Inequality and Diversity launched the “Health as Common Good” documentary and campaign to bring to the attention of MEPs the urgency of directing more research in the public interest
On the occasion of the forthcoming vote in the European Parliament on the Report on Lessons Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic and Recommendations for the Future, (which should take place on July 10th), the Forum on Inequality and Diversity launched the “Health as Common Good” documentary (here you can find the trailer) and campaign.
The goal of the campaign is both to bring to the attention of MEPs the need to truly learn from the Pandemic in the EU commitment to public research and to raise awareness among all citizens on such a crucial issue. We are inviting to sign a petition in support of the proposal to create a pan-European public Research & Development infrastructure and delivery organisation for medicines.This proposal, submitted to the European Parliament on September 2022, was first advanced by the Forum on Inequality and Diversity in 2019 in a public Report within 15 proposals towards social justice.
The campaign was boosted by the results of the independent study that Massimo Florio and Simona Gamba (University of Milan) and Chiara Pancotti (CSIL) prepared for the European Parliament: the first ever estimate of investments “at risk” made by private firms and by the public sector in researching and developing vaccines. “At risk” because they were investments made before knowing whether the vaccine would work and go on the market. With reference to the 9 investigated vaccines, it was estimated that private firms made “at risk” investments of 5 billion Euros in Research&Development and 11 billion Euros in pre-production investment, a total of 16 billion Euros. At the same time, those firms received from the EU and the US, 9 billion Euros in subsidies for Research&Development (mostly from the US) and 21 billion Euros (shared by US and EU) in advance purchase agreements, i.e. before vaccine evaluation and authorization. A grand total of 30 billion Euros.
Taking on greater financial risk than private firms, however, has not led to the public sector becoming co-owner of the knowledge that was produced. States had no decisional power regarding either vaccine prices or vaccine distribution.
Yet even today, after more than 190,000 Covid 19 deaths in Italy alone, Europe is still not equipped to deal with the next epidemic. In the next weeks, the European Parliament will vote the Report on Lessons Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic and Recommendations for the Future All parties are called to commit themselves to putting Europe on the right truck and the Forum’s campaign serves as a reminder that a different path is possible.
