Malta stockpiles COVID vaccine, while EU opposes patent abolition

A tug-of-war is playing out in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) between Western blocs and the Global South to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines, so as to be able to boost production in developing nations.

The proposal was put forward by South Africa and India back in October 2020, where they argued that intellectual property rights are hindering the timely provision of affordable medical products to patients, including vaccines and medical equipment.

While Italy supports the waiver, a great deal of European Union countries, Malta included, are said to be opposing the waiver, according to Doctors Without Borders, the international medical humanitarian organisation.

So far, the proposal has been co-sponsored by Kenya, Eswatini, Mozambique, Pakistan, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, the African Group and the Least Developed Countries Group.

They say the waiver should remain in place until a majority of the world’s population has developed immunity against the virus. They also propose that WTO members’ obligations on intellectual property rules be waived until COVID-19 is contained.

But at WTO level, there is a lack of consensus on the waiver request. Its proponents argue that existing vaccine manufacturing capacities in the developing world have remained unutilised because of intellectual property barriers. This has forced the global supply of COVID-19 vaccines to remain significantly below full capacity.

Sceptics want an evidence-based discussion as to whether intellectual property rules are preventing access to vaccines, so as not to upset the WTO regime that protects patents.

Malta is among a group of European Union member states that is actually opposing the proposal; only Italy, one of the worst-hit countries by COVID-19, is supporting the proposal.

Doctors Without Borders are strongly urging governments to stop blocking this waiver, pointing out that many of the countries blocking or delaying the proposal – including EU countries – had managed to secure the bulk of available vaccines, often ordering more than is needed to vaccinate its populations.

Members of European Parliament are similarly urging the European Commission and European Council to review their opposition to the waiver proposal, in a cross-party declaration signed by 115 MEPs, including Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba.

“The vaccine is a public good,” he told MaltaToday. “It’s not something that we should be nationalist about, even where IP rights come in. This is a world emergency, and it’s important for everyone, whether you’re coming from a rich country or a poor country.”

While the declaration was signed by a cross-party lobby, the political groups in European Parliament are divided too, even among left political groups.

“There is division on the issue, with some claiming that it’s important to protect intellectual property rights even at this junction. From the left groups in parliament, there is a majority pushing for this direction [the waiver],” he said.

Agius Saliba further said that Malta should have no reason to oppose this waiver, especially given that Malta would lose nothing from the agreement.

“We won’t give part of our vaccines to other countries, but we will give them access to vaccines that are needed by everyone. It’s a huge discrimination for rich countries to create this sort of pressure to leave these countries without access to vaccines, while those can have access have to wait years. It doesn’t make sense.”

Labour MEP Alfred Sant has also called for the abolition of patent rights on the COVID-19 vaccine so that mass production on a global level could begin, warning that an oligopoly in global manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines would not work in the future.

Recently Malta was subject to criticism from Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for ordering an excess supply of COVID-19 vaccines, with Malta slated to have three times more vaccine doses relative to its population by the end of June than Bulgaria.

Prime Minister Robert Abela brushed off the criticism, saying that government is doing what’s necessary to ensure Malta is at the front when it comes to vaccinating the public.