Rich Countries Do Not Give Developing Countries A Corona Vaccine

Most developing countries cannot vaccinate their population, partly because pharmaceutical companies have a monopoly on the corona vaccine.

According to Oxfam Novib, rich countries are blocking a proposal in which more than a hundred developing countries argue for the temporary lifting of this monopoly.

The proposal will be discussed on Wednesday at the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit. The US, Great Britain and members of the EU, among others, defend the pharmaceutical companies. They say the companies are entitled to the monopoly because they have invested a lot of money in the rapid development of the vaccine. Also, developing countries would not have the ability to produce vaccinations.

“Not only the pharmaceutical companies but also governments have invested billions in the development of the vaccine. That is public money, so those companies should share their knowledge.” Berkhout says that modern factories, even in poor countries, are indeed capable of making the vaccines. She also believes that the pandemic is an extreme situation in which a monopoly should be temporarily lifted: “We should do everything now to protect everyone as quickly as possible.”

In the coming days, poor countries will receive more corona vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX program. But according to Oxfam Novib, with the available amount of vaccines, only a maximum of one-fifth of the population can be injected before the end of the year.

If the monopoly of the pharmaceutical companies is not lifted, it could still be three years before everyone in the world is vaccinated. “Then everyone here can enjoy the freedom,” says Berkhout, “while in other countries people die of corona”. That is also bad for the economies of developing countries. “That in turn, has consequences for the countries that are now opposed to the proposal.”