The Commission that investigates in Congress the management of vaccines in Spain has agreed on its final opinion promote greater transparency in advance purchase agreements vaccines with pharmaceutical companies and in terms of the actual cost of production and research.
This opinion, which was approved this Wednesday in the Commission created to investigate the management of vaccines in Congress, advocates promoting a global equitable access to vaccines. “The production of vaccines must increase exponentially and urgently throughout the world. Intellectual property is not and cannot be an obstacle,” they emphasize.
As reported by parliamentary sources, the opinion has received 179 votes in favor, 88 against and 11 abstentions. The ERC, the PSOE and United We Can have supported it, Bildu and the PNV have abstained, and the PP has voted against. Vox and Ciudadanos have not attended.
cooperation agreement
Collaborate with the EU to cope in better conditions possible future global health crises and consolidating the centralized European purchasing model for other medicines and essential or strategic products are other recommendations contained in the opinion.
Parliamentarians recognize that the European vaccination strategy has guaranteed the equitable access between member statesin addition to accelerating research and having a solid structure for manufacturing vaccines in the EU.
“Vaccines authorized in the European Union have shown that comply with the required parameters of quality, safety and efficacy“, highlights the report, which also mentions the role of Spain in the development of clinical trials.
And also the international leadership of Spain in the vaccination process, “a collective success” that the report relates to the solidity of the National Health System (SNS) and the important citizen acceptance, in addition to the Vaccination Strategy and the co-governance between the Ministry of Health and the communities.
The commission’s main recommendations are that the government lead the world in calling for Vaccines reach low-income countriesactivate and put into operation all the necessary mechanisms to promote and encourage voluntary license agreements and strengthen the C-TAP platform, which promotes the sharing of all forms of knowledge and technologies related to covid.
Parliamentarians also propose consolidate the centralized purchasing model in the EU for other medicines and essential or strategic products, as well as committing to the research and development of vaccines in Spain or using all the capabilities of current instruments to improve public health surveillance.
In addition, they recommend approve a public health strategy that promotes a comprehensive vision in all policies and that incorporates the successes of the response to the pandemic with a long-term strategic vision.
Citizens and Vox do not attend
Vox has not participated in the work of this commission, and neither has Ciudadanos attended the final session on Tuesday, whose deputy Guillermo Díaz explained to Efe: “We will not go or vote because it is a commission of agitation and propaganda.”
Instead, the PP has come and has presented its own conclusions, the first of which is that “it has not been a real commission of inquiry”. “Only those appearing proposed by the parliamentary majority that supports the Government have been heard,” says the PP in its conclusions.
“We consider that the parliamentary majority that supports the Government has not wanted to listen, or learn, or solve the mistakes. Instead of seek the light in relation to the management carried out of the covid pandemic as has happened in other countries, in Spain we are still in the dark”, denounced the PP.
In its sessions, the commission has analyzed investment and advance purchasethe application of the vaccination strategy and the development of the strategy and results.
Assistance
The director of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), María Jesús Lamas; her counterpart at the Carlos III Health Institute, Cristóbal Belda, the member of the covid scientific committee Agustín Portela, among others.
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On the part of the Ministry of Health, the highest position cited is Pilar Aparicio, the general director of Public Health, and general directors of the autonomous communities responsible for the implementation of the Vaccination Strategy, Asturias and Strategy will also be present.
However, the parliamentary groups that make up the coalition government, the PSOE and United We Can, avoided calling the former Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, the current minister, Carolina Darias, and the visible face of the management of the pandemic, Fernando Simón.