BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged G20 countries to fund the COVAX initiative to provide COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s poorer countries, but stressed that patent protection was vital to the development of medicines to deal with future pandemics.
Addressing a conference held on Friday in connection with Italy’s chairmanship of the G20 group of large economies, Merkel said the world needed to apply the lessons of the coronavirus crisis in preparing for future pandemics
“This includes not weakening the incentives for research and development but developing them further if necessary,” she said. “Patent protection plays an important role here.”
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Caroline Copley)
