EU accused of putting profit before people in Covid vaccine row

The sixth European Union-African Union Summit in Brussels came to a close last week with promises of a "renewed partnership" and pledges of major investments, but the event was marred by major disagreements over Europe's refusal to waive the patents on Covid vaccines.

During the summit - the first since 2017 - Brussels pledged €150 billion in public and private investments in Africa over the next seven years as it seeks to challenge encroaching Chinese and Russian influence across the continent. 

Read more: The EU's answer to China's Belt and Road Initiative

In her closing speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the investment would be focused on key infrastructures such as green hydrogen, connectivity, transportation, healthcare and education, though she did not go into further detail.

The EU also repeated its promise to donate 450 million Covid vaccines to Africa by the middle of the year, as well as €425 million to aid health services in the delivery of the jabs.

However, the summit was overshadowed by the ongoing dispute - headed by South Africa - about a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which would allow for the manufacture of generic vaccines and treatments at a fraction of the cost.

In October 2020, South Africa and India co-authored a proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) calling for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights on "diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for Covid-19".

A revised proposal was later submitted by the two countries in May 2021, with a large number of WTO member countries supporting a TRIPS waiver.

At the time, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that vaccination against the virus should be "a global public good".

"A situation in which the populations of advanced, rich countries are safely inoculated while millions in poorer countries die in the queue would be tantamount to vaccine apartheid," he wrote in his weekly newsletter.

The proposal also received support from the United States, with the country's Trade Representative Katherine Tai announcing Washington's support for the idea.

Read more: US calls for waiver of intellectual property rights for vaccines

There is a precedent for waiving patents on vital medications - also involving South Africa. In 1997, Pretoria passed legislation that would enable the country to import cheap generic versions of HIV/AIDS medication without obtaining permission from the pharmaceutical companies that held the patents.

South Africa was one of the hardest-hit countries during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1990s, and today the nation still has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world with 17% of the population aged between 15 and 49 being HIV+. 

In 1998, the South African government was sued by 39 pharmaceutical companies with the backing of the then Clinton administration in Washington. The companies claimed the new law was a violation of the South African constitution and that patents were necessary to generate the money needed for research.

By the time the case reach the court in 2001, the negative publicity had reached an unprecedented scale with thousands of demonstrators outside the courts and the US Embassy. Six weeks later, following negotiations with the government, the lawsuit was dropped.

Read more: Glaxo's two potential breakthroughs in HIV treatment

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 11% of the African population had received both jabs at the start of February 2022. This means that if it were to meet the target of 70% by the middle of the year, the vaccination rate would need to increase sixfold.

The EU, which is home to several of the major vaccine-producing companies, opposes the idea, arguing that the build-up of production capacity in poorer nations should be a higher priority.

As such, the bloc agreed to transfer mRNA technology to six African nations - Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia - so that Covid vaccines could be produced at scale and bridge the gap with the global north.

In a statement, the EU said the transfer will be "delivered through a centre of excellence and training – 'the mRNA-vaccine technology hub' in Afrigen, Cape Town", and that it "will share techniques with local producers and the WHO".

The mRNA technology transfer hub will also "provide training and financial support to build the necessary human capital for production know-how, quality control and product regulation, and will assist, where needed, with the necessary licences".

President von der Leyen said that future talks would be held in Brussels between EU and AU officials to find a solution to the TRIPS waiver dispute.

Read more: BioNTech has created a mobile vaccine factory for rollout in Africa

Brussels' stance on the waiver has been echoed by the UK - home of AstraZeneca. In December 2021, the UK Mission to the WTO issued a statement saying that the abundance of vaccines in development was evidence that the current Intellectual Property framework supported innovation.

It also said that a TRIPS waiver "would not increase the number of vaccines reaching people's arms".

The EU's refusal to waive TRIPS has been criticised by several African leaders and NGOs.

President Ramaphosa told journalists that without the waiver, Africa would be getting "crumbs from the table" from the West, adding that it meant the two sides "were not able to find each other on a matter of life and death".

He went on to say that the EU had caved in to pressure from pharmaceutical companies and as a result, European leaders were prioritising profit over lives and that without a solution "some of us would walk away from here feeling that this summit has failed". 

Peter Kamalingin, Oxfam Pan Africa Programme Director, also condemned the refusal to waive, accusing the EU of "siding with Big Pharma" and describing the decision as "shameful" and "an insult".

"EU leaders continue to make a song and dance about the importance of their relationship with the African continent. Yet they once again put the interests of their profit-hungry pharmaceutical corporations first," said Kamalingin in a press release.

"What Africans need is equal and fair access to vaccines. The ‘charity model’ has failed. Europe has already thrown away more vaccines than they donated to African countries this year."

Read more: What is the human cost of the green & digital transitions?

The EU also faced criticism over the lack of headway over an African demand to provide a larger share of post-pandemic recovery aid from the IMF.

The final statement called for "ambitious voluntary contributions" to add to that already pledged by EU member states. 

Emily Wigens, EU Director at The ONE Campaign, said of the summit: "The EU certainly had a case of selective hearing during the Summit and dodged a number of difficult decisions.

"African leaders were clear about the need for wealthy nations to step up with $100bn in Special Drawing Rights to support the continent’s economic recovery. Instead of grasping this once-in-a-generation opportunity to put significant new funding behind the partnership, Member States largely ignored it."

- Read the final declaration of the 6th EU-AU Summit.

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