The European Union has cracked a symbolic mark on a topic that is as important as it is sensitive: More than a billion doses of corona vaccine have now been exported from the EU to other countries and continents. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shared this on Monday in one Video message with. “The European Union is clearly the largest exporter of Covid-19 vaccines,” said the German. The subject is explosive because vaccines are extremely scarce in many poorer countries. This leads to calls for the patent protection to be lifted – to the detriment of manufacturers such as Biontech.
There was also a dispute over export bans at the beginning of the year. De facto, no vaccine was allowed to be delivered to the EU from the USA and Great Britain; conversely, European factories continued to send vaccine to America and the UK. Because of this imbalance, the Commission imposed one at the end of January Licensing requirements for such exports – a controversial move, but one that has not stalled exports, as the figures show. Von der Leyen said that corona vaccines from EU plants had been sent to “more than 150 countries on all continents”. According to Commission statistics, the top five recipients are Japan, Turkey, Great Britain, Korea and Malaysia. Von der Leyen added that 87 million cans went to the Covax initiative. Covax distributes vaccine to poorer countries worldwide. In addition, the EU will “donate at least 500 million cans for the most endangered countries” in the coming months, promised the head of the Commission.
According to their authority, they produce in the European Union 55 factories Covid vaccine. These have delivered the majority of their production to countries outside the EU: One billion exported cans are compared to 737 million cans that have so far been distributed to the EU states. Of this, 509 million come from the Mainz company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer and a good 100 million each from Astra Zeneca and Moderna, as from Data from the EU disease protection authority ECDC emerges.
So far, 570 million cans have been injected in the EU countries. This means that almost three quarters of EU adults are fully vaccinated, a higher rate than in the United States or Great Britain. However, the value hides dramatic differences between member states, as some governments find it difficult to convince vaccine skeptics. In Ireland, Malta and Portugal, for example, more than 90 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, but in Bulgaria it is only 24 percent and in Romania 35 percent. Von der Leyen said to hers State of the EU speech in September, she sees “these differences with concern”.
The Curevac case is being examined, it is said
The Commission has contracts with a total of seven manufacturers for up to 4.6 billion Doses completed by 2023. However, one of these contracts – for a good 400 million cans – was signed by Brussels with the Tübingen biotech company Curevac, and a week ago announced Curevac to withdraw its Covid vaccine from the approval process. So this pre-order will fall flat. However, the Commission made an advance payment to the company. Experts are currently examining what Curevac’s decision for this advance means, says a commission spokesman.
From the point of view of many poor countries around the world, these are luxury problems. The vaccination quota is in more than 50 countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East under ten percent, complains the World Health Organization WHO. The Geneva-based organization aims to have 70 percent or more of adults in every country in the world vaccinated against Covid by next summer. Some governments, such as those from India and South Africa, are calling for that To release patents for corona vaccinesto boost production. This would mean that every pharmaceutical company worldwide could, for example, manufacture the product that Biontech has developed. The Mainz-based company could no longer sue for patent infringements. This proposal is being discussed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) without any progress being made here.
The Commission and the majority of the EU states are against a patent release; the skeptics argue that the approach would not help quickly expand complicated production. Instead, Brussels is betting on the Support the construction of factories in Africa with one billion euros, in collaboration with patent holders. end of August Biontech vowed to manufacture its modern vaccines in Africa in the future; Locations in Rwanda and Senegal are already being examined.
Already 591 million digital Covid passports
In addition to data on vaccine exports, the Commission released another impressive figure on the pandemic on Monday: the 27 member states now have more than 591 million digital Covid certificates displayed. These prove that a citizen has been vaccinated, recovered or tested negative, and they also work in other EU countries. In addition to the EU states, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and twelve other countries have joined the system; Negotiations are ongoing with 28 other governments.