Germany 'open' To Discuss Waiving Covid-19 Jab Patents: Minister

Berlin, May 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th May, 2021 ) :Germany is ready to hold talks on a US-backed proposal to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Thursday.

"It is a discussion that we're open to," Mass told reporters when asked about US Trade Representative Katherine Tai's announcement Wednesday that Washington now supports calls for a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines while the pandemic rages.

Maas said Germany would join the discussion about such a move given the "extraordinary situation" of the global coronavirus outbreak.

"If that's a way that can contribute to more people getting vaccines faster then it's a question we have to ask ourselves," he said after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Maas said Germany was committed to helping to end the pandemic.

"That will only be the case when all people are safe around the world and we must do everything in our power to reach that goal as soon as possible," he said.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn, however, took a more sceptical line on the US initiative.

"We expressly support the goal of the US president -- supplying the world with vaccines is the only way out of the pandemic," Spahn said.

However those countries that produce vaccines "must also export them to other countries", Spahn said, pointing to US reticence to allow vaccines to leave its shores.

The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was co-developed by a German company, was the first Covid-19 jab to be approved in the West late last year.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had earlier said that Brussels was ready to discuss a vaccine patent waiver.

But she also stressed that Europe's priority would be to boost global supplies, and implicitly criticised both the US and the UK for limiting vaccine exports.