COVID: Germany's Maas hints at vaccine patent talks

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday that Berlin could enter talks on easing a patent shield for COVID-19 vaccines in order to benefit poorer nations.

"This is a discussion that we are having and which we do not want to avoid at all," said Maas on a visit to a Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The US pharmaceutical giant co-produces the Comirnaty vaccine with the shot's German developers BioNTech.

Germany has so far rejected US propsals to suspend patents on coronavirus vaccines. The issue is expected to be addressed when German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets US President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday.

What did Heiko Maas say about patent waivers for COVID vaccines?

As he departed Berlin, Maas had called for "every chance" to be used to boost vaccine deliveries, also to poorer nations hoping for easier patent access to make locally-produced vaccines.

At the Pfizer plant, he said short-term he saw little possibility for a BioNTech-Pfizer patent relaxation: "therefore the priority lies at the moment in improving delivery chains and production capacity in poorer countries." 

"One can do both, one can also do it in parallel," he added, referring to increased vaccine deliveries and the patent wrangle.

He also took a sideswipe at vaccine deliveries by China and Russia, accusing them of conducting influence-peddling "problematic vaccine diplomacy… rather than first and foremost saving lives."

China, especially, was supplying its vaccine to "make clear political demands of various countries, which is something we fundamentally reject."

Without "solidarity" in the global distribution of vaccines, the current delta variant "would not be the last that we must defeat," asserted Maas. 

ipj/rt (dpa, Reuters, AFP )