Dr. Aisling McMahon:

I thank the Chairman. I will start by answering some of the questions raised. On Deputy Stanton's question on why other countries have not joined the CTAP initiatives, 40 countries worldwide have done so, as was noted, including five European countries. In terms of why others have not, that is the question we are also asking. In our minds, CTAP will facilitate more access to vaccines. I can only speculate as to why countries have not signed up so far. I wonder if perhaps it is only now that as vaccines have thankfully come on board, we are seeing gaps in terms of access, supply chain issues and that do not have as many vaccines as we initially thought we would. Now would be an opportune time for people to reflect on that and countries to put themselves behind some of the initiatives such as CTAP which will, if it is supported, facilitate more people being able to make these vaccines.

Another important point was raised, which relates to the Chairman's point on the new variants that are arising. It is a worrying time. Others are more qualified to speak on those points and I am sure we will hear from Dr. Nabarro later on this. In terms of the intellectual property perspective, one of the obstacles to having access to vaccines is intellectual property, data and the sharing of know-how, in particular. This also relates to the point on the safety of the production of vaccines. We need companies to share their know-how to facilitate and enable others to produce vaccines of the same quality standard. CTAP would facilitate that. If we had more vaccines, we could deliver more vaccines. That would mean more people could be vaccinated and, it is to be hoped, reduce the number of new variants emerging. I will not speak on that. I am sure others can speak later on it.

On whether there is excess capacity in the system, we have looked at some of the research produced by other groups such as Knowledge Ecology International, KEI. It suggested that there is untapped potential. We know there are various different pharmaceutical companies, including in Ireland, who could facilitate and help with the production of vaccines. In recent times, some pharmaceutical companies have entered into voluntary licensing deals where they have agreed to help in the production of vaccines. For example, as far as I am aware, Pfizer and BioNTech recently reached an agreement with Sanofi to help to increase its production. We are calling for more of this.

Reference was made to shareholders. The traditional shareholder model involves a focus on profit. Some of the work we are now doing suggests that a small group of shareholders see themselves as stewards of resources. Actions are being taken in other countries, such as the US, where there have been shareholder motions, in particular in a pandemic context, to state that profits should not be the main priority and instead other goals such as delivering global equitable access should be prioritised.

We must consider who the shareholders are, which in some cases are pension fund or investment companies. There is potential for the public to leverage their voices by saying that in this pandemic we must see a change and the sharing of intellectual property and data to facilitate this.