Indonesia critisized for unwillingness to share bird flu virus samples

U.S. carps at Indonesia for unwillingness to cooperate when it comes to production of lifesaving vaccines.

Photo: Indonesia critisized for unwillingness to share bird flu virus samples

Indonesia is severely blamed for refusal to share bird flu virus samples. The main argument is that the standard “sharing” system is unfair and should be somehow altered.

The system looks like that: poor countries are obliged to send virus samples unconditionally to WHO, which then makes them available to pharmaceutical companies to create vaccines.

Thus in case of pandemic in poor countries it’ll be very expensive or just impossible to provide the population with the vaccine.

Indonesia stipulates for Material Transfer Agreement in order to retain the rights for any vaccines produced from them.

Indonesia was always very critical of the policy conducted by WHO and especially its follower – the United States, but the negotiations over bird flu samples are in progress.