At the meeting, leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies will ty to reach a consensus on which distribution program to finance. The draft agenda seen by news agencies says the World Health Organization’s COVAX scheme launched a year ago and still vastly underfunded should be used to share vaccines. But other bilateral deals or regional mechanisms such as one set up by the EU could also be considered.

In any case, the summit is seen as unlikely to take any concrete action on the hot-button topic of patent waivers as the draft does not mention it. While US president Joe Biden recently came out in favor of a proposal advanced by South Africa and India to waive intellectual property for Covid vaccines as a way to speed up the global rollout, not only the pharmaceutical industry has pushed back against the idea.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen initially said the bloc’s governing body was open to discussing the proposal; however, most member states have now come out against the idea, saying it is unlikely to speed up vaccine development. In November 2020, the G20 agreed only to support “voluntary licensing” of vaccine intellectual property or "patent-pooling". Under the latter scenario, drugmakers could agree to share manufacturing licenses with companies in poorer nations, which has been done previously with AIDs drugs.

Pharma groups propose five-step plan

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations  (IFPMA), along with PhRMA and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), have urged companies, governments and NGOs to work together to remedy vaccine supply inequities. Along with supporting distribution through COVAX and “other efficient established mechanisms,” they propose working with governments and individual suppliers of raw materials and components to determine how to accelerate scale-up of production capacity as well as identify trade barriers for critical input materials. Additionally, they would support the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI’s) effort to create an independent platform that would “facilitate voluntary matchmaking.”

Other suggested moves could involve partnering with governments on vaccine deployment, particularly in low- and lower-middle income countries, to ensure they can deploy available doses within their shelf life, as well as prioritizing development of new Covid-19 vaccines, especially those effective against variants of concern. Lastly, the initiative would press governments to guarantee unhindered access to pathogens (such as samples and sequences) of any Covid-19 variants to support the development of new vaccine and treatments.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist