BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is open to a discussion on whether patents for COVID-19 vaccines should be invalidated, but the priority is to boost production of vaccines to ensure the world is vaccinated as swiftly as possible, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
“We are ready to have that discussion,” Maas told a news conference when asked about the United States decision to make the vaccines patent-free, a move that has triggered calls for Europe to follow suit.
“But we are in such a state of urgency that it would be wrong not to take all possible measures that would improve supply, and at the moment that’s increasing production,” he added.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Madeline Chambers)
