Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi: Abolition Of The Patent Rights For The COVID-19 Vaccine Is Very Crucial

Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi. (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

JAKARTA - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi as the Co-Chairs for the global COVID-19 vaccine procurement facility, COVAX, again held a virtual meeting of the COVAX AMC Engagement Group, related to the development of the global vaccine procurement program.

In this meeting with the Minister of Health of Ethiopia (Lia Tadesse) and the Minister for International Development Canada (Karina Gould), a number of sensitive issues in vaccine procurement were discussed.

Regarding the supply of vaccines for the COVAX Facility, Retni said the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by SII (India) was shipped around 18 percent. Meanwhile, the production of AZ vaccine by SK Bio (South Korea) was delivered 50 percent of the initial commitment.

Retno said that his party hopes that the supply will increase, along with the increasing number of COVID-19 vaccines that have obtained an Emergency Use Permit (EUL) from WHO.

"Efforts to double vaccine production capacity including by eliminating (waive) vaccine patents are crucial in fighting the pandemic," said Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in a statement received by VOI, Tuesday, May 18.

To date, the COVAX Facility has committed to supply 1.7 billion doses, out of a total requirement of 2 billion doses to be distributed by 2021.

Meanwhile, so far 67.3 million doses have been sent by the COVAX Facility to 124 countries. Of the total number of countries scheduled to receive the vaccine by June 2021, 85 percent of them have received their first shipment.

Regarding the distribution of vaccines, Retno revealed that so far the level of inequality of vaccine distribution at the global level is still large. He said, only 0.3 percent of the current vaccine supply was sent to low-income countries. According to him, no country is completely free from COVID-19, as long as there are still infected countries.

"Regarding financing, of the total US $ 8.3 billion needed, currently US $ 6.6 billion has been collected. This is a positive development and it is hoped that the rest will be fulfilled in the future, especially at the AMC Summit which will be held. together with GAVI and the Government of Japan in June 2021, "he hoped.

He added that the governments of each country need the support of various levels of society, to build good communication regarding trust in the COVID-19 vaccination.