The US seeks that pharmaceutical companies distribute COVID-19 vaccines worldwide at cost price

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to the US president, Joe Biden, said this Sunday that Washington is working to get the pharmaceutical companies that have developed a vaccine against the coronavirus distribute it around the world at cost price with the aim of ending the pandemic.

“The bottom line is that we believe that pharmaceutical companies should supply (the vaccine) at cost to everyone so that there are no barriers to being vaccinated.”Sullivan said during an interview with the ABC channel.

Biden’s adviser also assured that the United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, was conducting “intensive talks” with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to overcome the problem of access to the vaccine and pointed out that there should be a “Way to go in the next few days.”

Sullivan’s remarks come shortly after a group of 10 Democrats, led by the representative of the most progressive wing, Senator Bernie Sanders, has called for drug companies to be required to temporarily cede patents on the vaccines of coronavirus so that countries that need it can develop their own serum.

This temporary suspension of vaccine patents has been proposed by India and South Africa to the WTO, two of the countries that suffer the most from the impact of the coronavirus.

“We urge you to support the adoption of this temporary exemption, which will ensure the most effective and efficient response to a global pandemic that is seen only once in a lifetime.”, says the letter from the Democrats addressed to Biden.

On the other hand, Sullivan assured that Washington is “proud” of what has been done to date to help India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus infections are registered daily and whose hospitals do not have enough material to deal with the disease. wave, although he pointed out that in an emergency of this caliber they always want to be able to move “faster and do more.”

The US representative recalled that his country has brought “very large military aircraft loaded with oxygen, loaded with raw materials for vaccines, loaded with treatments that can help save lives,” and pointed out that they continue to move aid “as quickly as possible.”

“We are concerned about the variants, we are concerned about the spread, we are concerned about the lives that are lost, and also about the side effects that may arise while the pandemic is totally out of control in India,” he added.