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 The Group of 20 nations looked set to call for voluntary licensing
and technology transfers to enable a rapid increase in vaccine
production, but will sidestep a push from the United States and
other nations to waive valuable patents for shots.
The European Union will also promise to set up vaccination
manufacturing hubs in Africa, which faces a dearth of doses.
The one-day virtual event, hosted by G20 president Italy and the
European Commission, is billed as the first major summit to focus on
ways to overcome the health crisis, which has killed millions, and
prevent future such disasters.
"As we prepare for the next pandemic, our priority must be to ensure
that we all overcome the current one together. We must vaccinate the
world, and do it fast," Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in
an opening speech.
While inoculation campaigns are in full swing in many developed
nations, helping trigger a dramatic fall in new cases, very few
shots have reached less developed countries, where the virus is
still raging, sometimes out of control.
An array of leaders, including the presidents of China, India,
France and South Africa, are due to address the meeting along with
the heads of multinational organisations, the U.S. philanthropist
Bill Gates and numerous health experts.
However, U.S. President Joe Biden is not listed among the speakers,
organisers said.
The Biden administration earlier in May backed calls from many
developing countries for a waiver of patents for COVID-19 vaccines,
in the hope that would boost production and allow for a more
equitable distribution of shots across the globe.
AFRICA HUBS
However, the draft final declaration seen by Reuters does not
mention such a mechanism, which has been contested by some European
nations, who have instead called for the removal of U.S. trade
barriers that they consider the main bottleneck preventing a ramping
up of vaccine production.
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 Looking to broaden supply
chains, Europe will announce during the meeting
that it will set up at least three manufacturing
hubs in Africa this year to boost long-term
production of vaccines, one EU official told
Reuters. The official said
drugmakers including Pfizer and BioNTech would announce large
supplies of at-cost COVID-19 vaccines to poor nations to try to
redress a global imbalance.
On Friday The GAVI Vaccine Alliance said it had agreed to buy 200
million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, as it seeks to fill a
big shortfall in its vaccine-sharing programme.
In her opening speech, European Commission President Ursula von der
Leyen said Europe would donate at least 100 million doses to poorer
nations by the end of the year.
The world leaders look set to recognise the importance of the
so-called ACT-Accelerator, a tool of the World Health Organization
(WHO) to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests across the
world.
However, dashing initial expectations, they look unlikely to commit
to fully fund the programme, which is still $19 billion short of
achieving its goals.
Leaders are likely to say that one option to help poorer nations is
sharing vaccines that wealthy countries have already purchased, but
there are no firm commitments on this in the final text.
 The WHO co-led COVAX program, which is dedicated to equitable global
vaccine distribution, is mentioned as one option for providing
donated doses to countries.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer in Rome and Francesco Guarascio in
Brussels; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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