– Bringing up vaccine production and distribution is one of the most important things we can do to deal with the pandemic globally.
This is what the subject director of FHI, Frode Forland, tells Dagbladet.
A year ago, India and South Africa, on behalf of the world’s poorest countries, proposed the abolition of the corona vaccine patents in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Removing the patents will mean that the already tested and approved vaccines can be produced by far more people, but the proposal was blocked by the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. As well as Norway.
Since then, US President Joe Biden has gone out and said that he will support the proposal.
Both Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol have gone to great lengths before the election to say that Norway must do the same. Now, however, the tone is different.
– Very embarrassing for Norway
At the end of November, the table is set for a ministerial conference in the WTO, where it is expected that a conclusion can be reached on the proposal. But when asked by Dagbladet, the Ministry of Health and Care Services will not provide a clear answer to Norway’s position.
– Embarrassed to be Norwegian
According to Forland, the world still suffers from an extreme inequality in vaccine coverage.
While more and more Norwegians will receive their third dose, less than ten percent of the population has received the first dose in 33 countries in the world. 25 of these are in Africa, he explains.
Norway leads the TRIPS Council in the WTO, which is the forum for patents and “intellectual property”. Norway has thus played a key role internationally when it comes to giving poor and middle-income countries access to patents and ingredients to produce vaccines, but we are among those who said no to the proposal when the issue was up for consideration in the WTO in October last year.
– EMORM INEQUALITY: Director of FHI, Frode Forland, says the world still suffers from a huge inequality in vaccine coverage and believes Norway has shown little willingness to take action in this matter. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet
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It attracted attention.
SV, which has twice submitted a proposal to the Storting that Norway should turn the matter around, was furious at Norway’s position, while MDG’s Lan Marie Berg stated that it did «Embarrassed to be Norwegian».
In May: Supported the proposal
After Biden turned around, others have also turned in the case. Among these is current Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
On Facebook he wrote in May a longer post entitled “Time to grant exemptions from patent protection of Covid vaccines”.
There he wrote, among other things, that the world needs more covid vaccines to reach everyone and to protect us from new virus variants.
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– It will require the development of more and new vaccines. We have to do what works. Norway should work for new solutions in the WTO, where the regulations for the development and protection of medicines are decided. The world needs an agreement that ensures increased production of both more and new vaccines against covid.
Furthermore, Støre argued that Norway should allow for exemptions from patent protection of covid vaccines, so that vaccines can be produced in several places.
– Such a decision does not in itself give more vaccines today. But we need solutions that help increase the capacity for safe mass production of complex vaccines on all continents. It requires cooperation, not conflict. The US signal to open up for exemptions from patent protection increases the possibility of such cooperation. The world needs vaccines, we must do what works and Norway must contribute actively to the WTO and WHO, Støre wrote on Facebook.
Today: Uncertain
Dagbladet has asked questions to the Prime Minister’s office to hear whether Støre’s statement from May is valid today, but will be forwarded to Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol.
During an event organized by MSF at Arendal Week, several Dagbladet spoke with experienced that Kjerkol had the same attitude as Støre, and that she also went so far as to say that Norway would support the proposal.
Dagbladet also does not receive a clear answer about Norway’s position from the Ministry of Health and Care Services shortly before the WTO meeting.
Nurses are furious at the Minister of Health’s statement
State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson writes the following in an e-mail to Dagbladet:
– So far, the main challenge has probably been too little production capacity for vaccines, especially in Africa. Patents do not appear to have been a decisive obstacle to increasing production. Various export restrictions have been just as important.
– But we must make sure that patents do not prevent the resolution of global health crises. The Government has therefore initiated a review of Norway’s positions in the WTO negotiations. We are looking at how we can best contribute to a compromise on the issue of waiver from the TRIPS agreement, he adds.
Hope Norway will turn around
MSF has also reacted strongly to Norway’s position. They hope Norway will now turn around.
– We know that patent rights are a barrier. We also know that removing them saves lives, says doctor at MSF, Elin Hoffmann Dahl, to Dagbladet.
She works daily in the infection ward at Haukeland University Hospital and emphasizes that India and South Africa have applied for the patent exemption because they know they are at the back of the vaccine queue.
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– Norway will not notice anything about this. We buy vaccines from the big drug companies, like Pfizer etc. But the poor countries will be able to buy from the companies that can produce in low- and middle-income countries, which are at the back of the queue with them.
The WTO is consensus-driven, which means that nothing will happen until an agreement is reached.
– Little will to action
Even though it is more than a year since the proposal was first put forward, it will still be important for the vaccine access if it should be in place now, Hoffmann Dahl emphasizes.
– This disease will be with us for a long time to come. When the authorities in high-income countries such as Norway, in addition now recommend booster doses for everyone over the age of 18, vaccine shortages will continue to be a major problem as long as more people are not allowed to produce.
Third dose: – Ready at any time
She receives support from Forland.
– There may be talk of a large vaccine production for a long time. That a third dose should be given to our part of the world already, shows that, says Forland.
Forland also points out that Norway has not really shown much willingness to act in this case.
– Both the WHO and the UN Secretary-General have been clear that increasing the supply of vaccines for the entire world population is necessary to overcome the global pandemic. It has become a form of vaccine nationalism, and the Covax program has also failed to deliver as one had hoped. Many low-income countries are still waiting for the international agreements to become more than words and actually lead to action, says Forland.
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