Mr. Oliver O'Connor:

We fully respect everyone in the situation. With great respect to members of the committee, the facts are that there are more vaccines produced than the African countries can currently accept. That has been said by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, not us. That is the evidence for the position we hold at the moment. If they were crying out for more to be delivered and the industry was not delivering, that would be a different case all together. However, that is not the case at the moment. Where we are right now is that the level of production is there. The industry will continue to develop and increase that level of production so that demand can be met. On the question of changing the rules, we think it is a change of the rules, obviously. It certainly changes the environment. That affects the environment for investment in the future, as well as the environment for the current production. They are distinct issues to discuss and debate. The future is something to be thought about very carefully in terms of whether we will see the solutions emerge, in any event. It is up to public policymakers to make their choice on that and to have whatever risk tolerance they want for that. My point is that it is very difficult to expect companies to invest, on a constant basis, in their capacity to manufacture and deliver vaccines and medicines on a global basis, with all the regulatory requirements and quality control environments needed, if we are going to change the rules suddenly in respect of a large amount of investment and in respect of every aspect of the production which they have invested in over many years.