The ONE Campaign welcomes comments from Franz-Werner Haas, CEO of German pharmaceutical company CureVac, calling for a suspension of vaccine patents and IP restrictions to help accelerate the speed the world can get access to vaccines

Speaking in response to these comments, Edwin Ikhuoria, Executive Director for Africa at The ONE Campaign, said:

“The fact that a major pharma company working on COVID vaccines is now championing a suspension of patents for vaccines for the duration of the pandemic should come as a wake-up call for other companies and for governments currently debating the relaxation of intellectual property restrictions.

The whole world needs this pandemic to end as quickly as possible. Anything that accelerates the development, production and distribution of vaccines takes us closer to that goal. The sooner people are protected from this virus, the safer we will all be and the faster we can take back control of our lives and get our economies moving again.

We urge other pharma companies to follow this lead – and political leaders give up on self-defeating double standards that sees them seeking to monopolise access to vaccines domestically while allowing the virus to continue to spread globally. While this virus can thrive anywhere, people everywhere remain at risk.”