Emmanuel Macron: More transparency needed on COVID-19 vaccines

French President Emmanuel Macron underscored the need for more transparency in COVID-19 vaccine orders and pricing.

“We need to make sure that there [is] transparency regarding procurement of orders, delivery, and pricing [of COVID-19 vaccines],” Macron said Monday during the groundbreaking ceremony of WHO Academy in Lyon, France.

“There are lots of promises made, and lots of money is promised, but often [vaccines arrive] very late, nobody knows what price has been paid to pharmaceutical labs per dose, and ... some companies are making profits, and that is not part of the values we defend,” he said.

“International solidarity is not that. We need to enhance this transparency and have a clear code of conduct,” he added.

Macron also appealed to pharmaceutical companies to engage more in technology transfers and reiterated the need to build local vaccine production in other countries, particularly on the African continent.

He also defended that Europe has been exporting COVID-19 vaccines even before the United States.

“Our American friends banned the export of vaccines, and sometimes even blocked exports elsewhere. They have been donating some vaccines only since the summer. But not from the beginning of the crisis,” he said.

“Even when we had trouble with our vaccination campaign, we're already exporting 50% of the doses produced [in Europe]. That's not the case of China, the United States, or the countries of the Near and Middle East,” he said.