Ruling DISY voted in favor of the pharmaceutical giants against people’s health
10th May 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
For humanity to be in a position to overcome the pandemic and for all the states around the world to protect their peoples, the patents on vaccines and drugs for Covid-19 must be lifted. That is to say, the intellectual property rights in vaccine know-how must be removed in order to increase the production of vaccines and cover, if possible, all the peoples around the world, especially in the poorest countries. By doing so, international scientific cooperation will be strengthened and scientific research will make leaps and bounds. After all, only if the overwhelming majority of the world’s population is protected from the coronavirus will the virus’ mutations/variations be reduced and we will all finally be safe.
The demand for the abolition of patents for vaccines presupposes that human health will take precedence over the profits of the business giants of the pharmaceutical industry, that are already becoming richer and richer. This is precisely what millions of people around the world, international organizations and governments are demanding. AKEL has been participating actively in all-European and international campaigns all these months, demanding the abolition or at least the suspension of patents on vaccines for Covid-19.
During the last plenary session of the European Parliament, a proposal was submitted by the Group of the Left, which called on the EU to support the World Trade Organization’s demand for the lifting of the patents on vaccines. Out of the 6 Cypriot MEP’s, only the 2 AKEL MEP’s, supported this demand.
The MEP’s of the ruling DISY party, together with the whole of the European Right-wing, voted against the demand, siding once again with the interests of the big pharmaceutical industries. These are the ideological obsessions which indeed the whole world is literally baring the cost of.
