Joe Biden wants to deliver 500 million doses to poor countries. Who says better ? French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on pharmaceutical companies to give poor countries the equivalent of 10% of the total doses of anti-Covid vaccines sold and also wanted the G7 to endorse the target of 60% of Africans vaccinated by the end of March 2022. "Donations of doses by States must be supplemented by donations of doses by pharmaceutical laboratories", such as the 10% commitment of donations by the private sector made during the epidemic of H1N1, he reminded the press. "States have massively funded research and the purchase of doses" and "it is legitimate that" the pharmaceutical industry contributes in a proportionate way to this solidarity ", he judges.
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He also wanted the G7, which starts on Friday in the United Kingdom, "to endorse the objective of 60% of Africans vaccinated by the end of the first quarter of 2022", the objective defined by the Union crisis agency. Africa, which also provides for an intermediate objective of 40% at the end of 2021. "This is an objective raised compared to the one we had committed to having within the framework of Covax", the international mechanism for donating doses to poor countries, "Which was only 20%" of Africans vaccinated this year, he said.
This objective of 60%, "I think it is the right objective and it is the one that we must endorse within the framework of this G7, France is ready to take its full part", added the French president, recalling that France as Germany have each announced their intention to give 30 million doses, "which allows the European Union to have at least the objective of 100 million doses" given.