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The World Health Organization (WHO) celebrated that the President of the United States, Joe Biden, supports the suspension of patents for coronavirus vaccines .
“ I congratulate the United States on this historic decision to achieve equality in vaccines and prioritize the well-being of all at critical times, ”said the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
The Director of the WHO considered that a suspension of patents is “ key in the fight against COVID – 19 “. “I am not surprised by the announcement, it is what I expected from the Administration of President Biden,” he added.
The announcement of Joe Biden to support the proposal submitted in October 2020 for India and South Africa “ is a great example of American leadership global health services ”, highlighted Tedros Adhanom.
However the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) considered “disappointing” the express support of the US president to a suspension of patents.
“It will not increase the production of doses … On the contrary, it can lead to disorganization,” the global federation of pharmaceuticals said in a statement. who pointed out that other limes need to be solved contributions to the production of doses “such as the elimination of trade barriers or bottlenecks in the supply of raw materials and other ingredients.”
“ The only way to guarantee a rapid increase in vaccines and equitable access to them for everyone continues to be a pragmatic and constructive dialogue with the private sector ”, added IFPMA.
The The organization said that it “is fully in favor of ensuring that vaccines are shared quickly and equally around the world, but a suspension (of patents) is a simplistic and wrong solution to a very complex problem.”
The Administration of Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed its support for a proposal to suspend patents presented more than half a year ago by India and South Africa before the World Trade Organization. rcio (WTO), which seeks to increase vaccine production centers and thereby accelerate global immunization.
Joe Biden’s announcement was met with sharp declines in stocks of the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna and Novavax on the Wall Street stock exchange.
With information from EFE.
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