Big vaccine makers reject offers to help produce more jabs – By Ashleigh Furlong (Politico) / May 14 2021
Several drugmakers say they have capacity to help produce millions of doses.
As much of the world remains starved for coronavirus vaccines, a group of companies is offering to partner with larger drugmakers as one way to rev up production. But they’re getting the same answer: No thanks.
Biolyse in Canada, Incepta in Bangladesh, Teva in Israel and Bavarian Nordic in Denmark have all asked to assist in the manufacture of vaccines. As yet, none has a deal.
This reluctance to merge forces is even more puzzling given Big Pharma’s line that current production capacity is to blame for vaccine under-supply. It’s this reasoning that drugmakers cite to counter arguments in favor of waiving intellectual property for vaccines — a movement that got a jolt last week when the U.S. gave rhetorical support to the idea.
“[Europe’s] focus should remain on creating the partnerships and investing in facilities to increase capacity to meet the needs of citizens across Europe [and] around the world,” said the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations’ Director General Nathalie Moll after the U.S. announcement.
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