During the European Union summit, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki presented a proposal that pharmaceutical companies that developed vaccines using public funds should share patents with other companies that have available production lines. The head of government argued that citizens' health and life were too important to "sacrifice them for a few companies' better financial performance."
"The problem with the availability of vaccines affects all European countries - from Portugal, through France, Germany, Poland, to the Baltic states. Delays on the part of pharmaceutical companies and problems related to the production and delivery of doses, combined with the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, create a risk to full recovery and a quick return to normalcy," - wrote the head of government.
"The development of the vaccine is a great joint effort by the entire European Union, one of the greatest in history. The money that we spent together for this purpose went to scientists and pharmaceutical companies. And now it turns out that they are not keeping up with production, or that vaccines are shipped from European factories outside the European Union - to achieve greater profits"- he added.
"Every European country has appropriate patent law regulations in this matter. Time for us to take advantage of them. In solidarity, as a European community!"
