Waiving IP rights will not boost vaccine production, says pharma group

Latin America

Exempting Covid-19 vaccines from intellectual property rights will not speed up production or distribution of the jabs, a pharmaceutical industry association argued Tuesday.

Proponents of doing away with IP rights say more companies could produce the vaccine, which could then be used in poorer nations that have yet to receive any jabs.

But the head of a pharmaceutical group said Tuesday that managing the complex logistics of rolling out vaccines was what was slowing down jabs, not patents.

“Taking away patents now or imposing a waiver wouldn’t give you a single dose more,” said Thomas Cueni, the head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

“It is really about the know-how, it is about the skill set… you still wouldn’t know how to roll them out on a large scale,” he added, speaking at a virtual briefing in Geneva.

His comments come amid a push at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to introduce a temporary IP waiver during the pandemic. The proposal, which was first put forward last year by India and South Africa, has been gaining momentum with the backing of more than 100 countries.

But several nations, including the United States and Switzerland along with the European Union, oppose the move. The opposition means the proposal cannot move forward in the WTO, which makes decisions by consensus.

Jim Robinson, in charge of the Covid vaccine manufacturing strategy at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), warned against waiving vaccine patents.

Pointing to the many people already sceptical about vaccines, he warned that poor-quality or unsafe vaccines by underqualified manufacturers could have devastating consequences.

“We don’t want to stretch so far that we break the system and we do harm,” he said, adding that vaccine production has been much more successful than anticipated.

Some 10 billion doses are expected to be produced this year – double the manufacturing capacity for all vaccines combined in 2019.

But manufacturers have faced a number of supply chain issues and bottlenecks, and there are still “significant gaps” between the expected output and the current manufacturing capacity, Cueni said.

Leftist Arauz, conservative Lasso advance to Ecuador presidential run-off

América Latina

Leftist economist Andrés Arauz will face conservative Guillermo Lasso in the upcoming second round of Ecuador’s presidential election, officials confirmed Sunday. Third-place finisher, indigenous leader Yaku Pérez, vows to appeal.

Thirty-six-year-old Arauz won the first round with 32.72 percent of the vote – not enough to win outright. His opponent in the second round will be ex-banker Lasso, who took 19.74 percent to beat left-wing indigenous leader Yaku Pérez’s 19.39 percent, according to the final results of the February 7 poll.

The run-off will take place on April 11, after the first round results were approved by four out of the five members of the National Electoral Council (CNE) at a meeting that lasted into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Pérez, however, said he would appeal. He last week submitted a request for a recount in 17 of the country’s 24 provinces, but that secondary tally was suspended Wednesday.

“We’re going to challenge thousands of votes,” Pérez, a 51-year-old environmental lawyer, said Sunday, before joining indigenous people and supporters marching on the capital Quito.

He has alleged there was fraud to keep him out of the run-off after he was narrowly displaced by Lasso from second to third place in the middle of the count.

“This resistence continues in the legal, judicial, social and political fields,” said Pérez, adding that “we cannot allow electoral fraud to remain unpunished.”

The marchers, who left last Wednesday from close to the southern border with Peru, are expected to arrive in Quito on Tuesday.

“Rivers of people will arrive, rivers of our hearts to say that our vote is worth defending, our vote must not be stolen. We need to recover the votes,” Pérez said.

Lasso, who last week supported Pérez’s call for a partial recount, has already started looking forward to the next round.

“Today democracy has triumphed, we are going with courage and optimism to this second round,” Lasso said in a statement following the announcement.

Incumbent President Lenín Moreno, whose term in office ends on May 24, did not seek re-election.

President Fernández arrives in Mexico for talks on business, vaccines

América Latina

Alberto Fernández landed in Mexico City today for an official visit geared towards “strengthening commercial ties” between two countries. President set to meet Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador, billionaire businessman Carlos Slim and visit an AstraZeneca vaccine laboratory.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard was on hand to welcome President Fernández and his entourage as they arrived at Mexico City airport.

Government sources said that “for sanitary reasons” the president had travelled on a private charter flight, rather than take a normal plane. He was accompanied by First Lady Fabiola Yañez; Secretary General to the Presidency Julio Vitobello and the Communications and Press Secretary Juan Pablo Biondi.

Foreign Minister Felipe Solá; Economy Minister Martín Guzmán, Deputy Cabinet Chief Cecilia Todesca, Secretary for Strategic Affairs Gustavo Beliz and presidential advisor Ricardo Forster also made the trip, which has the stated aim of “strengthening commercial ties” between the two countries.

Two government-aligned lawmakers who were also set to travel with the president, Senator Jorge Taiana and Deputy Eduardo Valdés, were taken off the flight list after it emerged that they had been vaccinated ahead of schedule in the so-called ‘VIP vaccination’ scandal that broke over the weekend.

“I want to welcome the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, who arrived very early today,” said López Obrador at the beginning of his morning press conference, confirming the Argentine leader’s arrival.

López Obrador’s will host an official welcome on Tuesday. Afterwards, the Peronist leader will attend López Obrador’s morning conference, then join him in a working breakfast.

Packed schedule

Fernández has a packed schedule, which started Monday morning with a meeting in the Hotel InterContinental Presidente with Mexican businessmen who have investments in Argentina.

The president will then visit the Liomont laboratory where the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine is being produced, in co-production with Argentina, touring various rooms including the refrigeration chambers holding the shot’s main active ingredient, which was sent to Mexico in January by the local laboratory mAbxience .

Mexico and Argentina plan to co-produce around 200 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab to meet the demand in Latin America.

On Tuesday after his official welcome, Fernández will meet with Carlos Slim — the billionaire Mexican telecommunications tycoon who has provided resources for the production of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Later that evening, he will attend a meeting at the Argentine Embassy with a host of “intellectuals and cultural leaders.”

The following day, Fernández will go to the state of Guerrero for a ceremony commemorating 200 years of Mexican independence, where he will be in attendance as the special guest of López Obrador.

“Having been invited by his Mexican counterpart, Fernández will be one of the speakers at the ceremony, which will take place at the Cerro del Tehuehue” in Iguala, the Presidency confirmed in a statement.

Oil giant Petrobras sheds US$19 billion in value over two days

Latin America

A sell-off in Brazil’s state-controlled oil firm Petrobras picked up on Monday after a group of analysts downgraded the stock within 24 hours, following Jair Bolsonaro’s decision to replace the company’s chief executive officer.

Bradesco BBI, BTG Pactual, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Nau Securities, Santander, Scotiabank and XP Investimentos cut their ratings on the shares after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday decided to fire the oil company’s CEO following a spat over hikes in fuel prices and moved to appoint Joaquim Silva e Luna, a former Army general, as a replacement. Company’s board still needs to confirm the decision.

Shares in Petrobras tumbled in Sao Paulo, erasing about 102.5 billion reais (US$18.8 billion) in market value in the past two sessions. The company’s American Depositary Receipts fell 21 percent in New York.

Investors are concerned the hasty appointment of a new CEO may signal a potential shift away from market-friendly policies. The oil company’s discount to global peers is expected to widen and the sale of its refineries could also face delays as a result, hindering deleveraging plans, analysts said.

“Fundamentals are unlikely to be the main driver of the stock in the near term,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Bruno Montanari wrote in a report dated February 21, moving the stock to not-rated from overweight. “We will have to weigh the role of a much increased risk perception in the sector, the country, and PBR specifically.”