one former minister has told m.p.'s greensill had elements of a ponzi scheme something david cameron rejects and while he accepts he should only have gone through official channels he says he broke no rules the al-jazeera. rusher is sending an actor and a film director where no movie crew has been before their mission is to make the 1st feature film in space using the international space station is a studio. president and director. will begin training for the expedition later this month with takeoff scheduled for october. this is a 0 these are the top stories and israel has intensified its aerial bombardment of gaza killing a mother and her 3 sons 10900 palestinians including 31 children have been killed since the offensive began on monday. hamas fired another $220.00 rockets towards

israel hitting the city of ashkelon at least 9 people have died in israel since the conference. the israeli military is deploying troops and has plans for a ground offensive and it has the latest from ramallah in the occupied west bank. all in all it's been a tough night for palestinians and we've seen people in tens of families having to evacuate their houses mainly in the northern part of the gaza strip because of the artillery intense artillery shelling of the gaza strip and the west seeking refuge on or west. on the west calls let's remember that there is no safe place in gaza people don't have access to shelters the united nations egypt leading mediation efforts the security council will hold an emergency talks on sunday general and when it could terrorists as appeal for an end to hostilities. a severe shortage of coronavirus vaccines is forcing some indian states to try to secure

more doses overseas and render modi's government says it hopes more than $2000000000.00 additional jobs will be available from orcas but it's also been accused of abdicating responsibility by making states compete against each other for facts seems a state of emergency has been declared in 3 more districts of japan because of rising coronavirus cases means around 70 percent of the population will not be subject to restrictions japan has been grappling with a new strain of covert 19 just 10 weeks before the take your lympics that you to start brazil's governments repeatedly ignored offers to buy millions of coronavirus fact scenes last year that's according to fighters bosses in latin america who's testifying before a senate commission it's investigating whether the government was criminally negligent in its handling of the pandemic. headlines more news coming up here on al-jazeera right after the bottom line. what happened is when

i'm in built the tourist suddenly has no. one when east travels to bondi to find out. which is iraq. hi i'm steve clemons and i have some questions is joe biden's plan to lift patent protections for corona virus vaccines really such a great idea and will it really get vaccines to billions of people around the world pronto let's get to the bottom line. when he was running for president last year joe biden promised to waive intellectual property protections for corona virus vaccines then last week he actually threw his support behind an effort at the world trade organization to make it happen touching off a political firestorm at home for supporters of the idea it shows that washington understands the pandemic doesn't respect borders that the developing world needs help and that a crisis this great demands big efforts like waving ip to solve it for the critics

they're wondering why biden would pull the rug out from beneath the innovator's of miracle vaccines produced in an amazingly short period of time they say this decision won't help people get vaccines more quickly and that there are lots of ways to globally produce distribute and deploy vaccines to the rest of the world without giving away intellectual property protections and to american trade protectionists it's blasphemy to give western secrets to medical producers in india china and russia of course it's not a done deal and many rich countries like germany oppose biden side so in the end is it just a symbolic move and what will the consequences be today we're getting 2 distinct perspectives on the debate in the 2nd half of the show we're going to be joined by the chief u.s. correspondent of the financial times at loose but 1st we're talking to dr michelle mcmurray he the president and c.e.o. of the world's biggest biotech lobby known as bio the biotechnology innovation organization before that dr murray heath was a top executive at johnson and johnson michel it's great to be with you today look i think a lot of people are. feeling pain and frustration as they see so many in india and

around the world suffer with the ravages of kovac and in their minds big pharma firms which they see as making lots and lots of money are sitting on property rights that if they were extended could help relieve that pain and suffering and death around the world tell me how you feel about that equation. well let's start with the end goal everyone shares the goal of making sure we get as many code vaccines out to every corner of the world to every person who needs them as soon as possible we are in a race against kobe variants and so it's incredibly important not only that everyone get backs unaided but that we do it very very quickly know when to say until we are all safe this is uniformly shared amongst our companies and i think amongst the public health professionals around the globe where we differ as is 2 of the fastest way to actually get that done and what stands in the way right now between shops and more arms is not intellectual property many of our companies have

license their technology to manufacturers around the globe i was recently in a conversation with the head of the vaccine manufacturing association in india and he was saying what we need is not more access to ip we have lots of the top leading bechstein manufacturers licensed their technology to indian manufacturers but we can't get our hands on the raw materials because a well meaning steps like the defense protection act which is really stopped a lot of the raw materials needed to manufacture vaccines at the u.s. border preventing them from being exported out to others and the fact that the u.s. has been really demanding that the manufacturers reserve their supplies from the u.s. population 1st these are well meaning policies you can understand the incentives behind them and the logic behind them but now that we're facing a global crisis it's more important for us to share and that's actually why the

biotechnology innovation organization has put together a group of proposals that would get us to the destination that we actually call share to really make sure we're sharing the raw materials as well as the back scene to everyone who needs them i want to hear more about that in just a moment but i but i would like to play a clip from dr titus gabriel the director general the world health organization who's commented on this i want to ask you about you know the ecosystem that has led to the generation of these vaccines and why he has the perspective he does let's listen to dr gary s's. we are on you not unprecedented crises that requires unprecedented action cases on a record high almost 100000 people are dying globally each week and we have a chronic vaccine crisis the world trade organization provisions food ip

waivers designed precisely for a situation like this so michelle i know that the w.h.o. director general understands that we've been through this period where there's been essentially a miraculous set of vaccine options that have been developed in you know very very short period of time and that we're not through this tunnel what do you think is going on here what why you suggested share others have suggested a global marshall plan that would deploy this that that wouldn't touch intellectual property why are we looking at the intellectual property as the conveyor of vaccines as he describes it that you know some people argue could undermine that innovative ecosystem that's created all these options. well let's start with this premise that this these are unprecedented times that call for unprecedented action and that's exactly what you see from the manufacturers and the invaders you know in

the 1st 13 months of this pandemic our company started over 960 research and development programs targeted at trying to you know prevent co bit or stop code that we've seen the emergence of their picks and vaccines we talk a lot about the top 10 that are either not been approved or close to being approved but there are actually over 190 back scenes in development that kind of were best response to any public health emergency is exactly what we want to see and we don't want to do anything to undermine that response by shaking confidence and the ip system that has served us so well this is we need to make sure that we are handling this pandemic without undermining our ability to respond to the next pandemic because we never know when that will come so there's that 2nd and i understand his frustration because he's been trying to stimulate global leaders to take part in kovacs which is a w.h.o. supported effort to universally of around the globe who resources from from

wealthier countries use those resources resources to purchase back scenes at very low cost and then distribute them around the globe so that the poorest countries would receive kobe back scenes for free and yet what what he see is a lack of response our company our countries have not stepped up to the plate the biden administration took a huge step but i reversed in the previous administration's stance and actually pledging to participate in kovacs the u.s. had been absent from the table up to then and yet we've only paid half of our financial commitment to kovacs so we only pay $2.00 of the $4000000000.00 the u.s. has pledged to help perch. so we really need to really take part in our global commitment we need to step up to the table and help all of the countries that are in a position to help distribute vaccines around the globe and i think look at the doing

is going to cover not going out and saying ok if this is something that you care about that this is something that's important then you've left us no choice but to talk about it because we're trying to bring everyone to the table and thus far we failed so maybe it's a negotiating tactic on his part look i know that your background that you have worked in research labs you work at one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world johnson and johnson a lot of people listening to this show are going to know astra zeneca johnson and johnson pfizer and these are the big firms and they see and feel that these firms are making you know lots of money in the middle of this crisis and that there's something that doesn't feel right about that one of the reason i want to talk to you is that i know that bio is comprised of small firms that are not receiving government money that are making investments in bets around that i'd love to get your perspective and tell that story because i think it's been neglected in the discussion about property rights and why would they do what they're doing if they

didn't have you know a property right element in moving their assets and you know their intellectual assets to try to solve this crisis. all right so let's talk about 1st of all what some of the largest companies have done you know johnson and johnson has publicly pledged that they will sell their vaccine at cost but if there has pledged that they will sell their exene at not for profit rates so you have them are just companies in our ecosystem really stepping forward and saying if you are we have the capacity to help we will but the small companies are the life blood of our innovation even frizer has has partnered with a very small company bio in touch to produce their back scene and we have companies like madonna who are incredibly small but going to spend a mic started those 960 research projects i talked about 90 percent of them 90 percent of our global response to code it has come from our smallest biotechnology companies but a 50 percent of those companies are u.s. based because the u.s.

has the investment ecosystem to drive that kind of response more covert research has been done in the us and then in the rest of the world combined because of our robust ecosystem that helps match innovators to investors and that's precisely because we have the ability to say you know the carrot for all of these efforts is the opportunity to purchase ants make your money back even though $9.00 out of 10 research and development programs in biotechnology they are so the odds are against you but at this point we're saying the deck is stacked against you if we also take ip out of the equation what happens in your view if a coven 20 comes down the pike cove a 20 meaning the successor coronavirus. pathogen that might might come along down the pike if something like an intellectual property wave wavers. protocol gets

established. well we can almost turn the clock back and imagine what it would have looked like you know when we started those 190 covert bechstein projects there was absolutely no way to predict which of them would be successful in fact some of the front runners that we hoped would work actually did not pan out to be successful and so we need to have a huge set of bets paid placed in in if we have any hope of trying to combat a pandemic so in the next one comes i don't want the investors that need those 190 exene research and development programs possible to say you know actually i don't want to take that i don't think it's worth my investment it's not just about the scientists being committed to trying to find solutions it's not just about our companies being committed to the science and to innovation it's also about the confidence of investors and so we need to maintain a company and we want to have the ability to respond are there down the line we've

run this nash this natural experiment already europe has really a roaded there biotechnology ecosystem over the last 30 or 40 years and we've seen that they have not been able to generate as much response to code as the u.s. companies so why are we going to repeat that mistake and show me to ask you to take your you know professional medical professional hat off for a minute and talk as a politician you know a global politician and gauge and for there's my next guest at a loose when this announcement of a tweeted out something very impressive he said you know this is going to be great for america's brand in the world this sends a signal that america is back that it's reengaged and after years of seeing that brand sink into a kind of narcissistic. position you know with with a lot of disregard that's why i've added a lot of words the tweet there but his point is it sent to signal about american

concern for the rest of the world like nothing. else can do i'd like to hear your thoughts about that just very briefly and is there an alternative where america could send as equally a powerful message to the world that it really cares for the world and still kind of ride this interesting question about what to do with property rights. if america was truly back and america truly expressed their caring for the world we would be fully funding kovacs we would be leading and calling on other countries to fully fund kovacs we would be donating what is estimated to be an excess of 300000000 vaccines doses that we will have sitting around in excess in a few weeks to countries around the globe and we would be opening up our raw materials to make sure anyone around the globe who is licensed to produce a coma bechstein would have over 200 gradients they need to produce a single vaccine that is american leadership that is really saying let's solve this

problem and as quickly as and as a mission early as possible it does nothing to hand needy countries a recipe book with no ingredients the lack of manpower needed to really fuel and safely produce these vaccines and undermine not only these very fragile well supply chains for all of these 200 raw materials but then also to put the accountability and trumpet great back in their laps and say here go take the 6 to 12 months it takes to stand up your own backseat manufacturing facility go find the raw materials that barely exist and good luck make it on your own we need to do more than that we are such a leading light in the world and we need to expect more of ourselves and we need to actively help or dr michelle mcmurry he's president and c.e.o. of the biotechnology innovation organization thanks so much for sharing your views

with us today thank you for having me steve now to get more perspective on the issue of patent waivers for the coronavirus vaccine we're joined by edward luce us national editor and columnist for the financial times based here in washington d.c. once upon a time edward was also the india bureau chief for the financial times as well and we know india is going through a bit of her. well at this moment on this very subject you have been positive about president biden's commitment to join those nations that want to waive intellectual property waivers with regards to grant i respect seeing particularly with regard to helping india and other developing nations that are real trouble do you think this is the solution. no no no single act the administration or its western partners takes is going to be the solution in and of itself but i think this is part of the solution which we can get into in a moment i do think it's a very important. politically symbolic and geopolitically symbolic gesture from the biden administration to the world to expect american leadership on this it is

extremely rare if ever that you see an american president take on big pharma it just doesn't happen this isn't something that you get up in the morning as president think oh that's easy i'll do that it just doesn't happen so the fact that i think he's been prepared to take on big pharma and do something that they don't want is going to be noticed and does send a very important signal of the seriousness of his intent right you up he wanted that intent and it does seem time in a fascinating article in the financial times this week you swatted him as well the president for not coordinating better with our european allies on this so what are you trying to hit and criticize on that element well the announcement last week was followed very quickly by irritation from angela merkel from my craw and from the

european commission in brussels and i think what this indicated is not just that they have a more conventional stance on ip protection which i'm going to market in particular does but that they haven't been consultation with america's allies in europe on this the been a huge internal debate on this you mentioned in your introduction biden promised in the campaign to wave. on these vaccines so this shouldn't be a surprise but the devil is always going to be in the details and this is a global act this isn't just an autonomous american act it has to be. approved by consensus. the world trade organization which means that america's partners france britain germany the swiss a big pharma produce are going to need to be on side so i think there was a little bit of. there was probably a little bit of. absence of diplomacy and ground preparation by the biden that ministration you know there's been

a lot of focus on big pharma just as you just shared there's also little farm as we just heard from dr mcmurray heath that the biotechnology innovation organization you know their little firms like grid stone which is involved in some oncology approaches which it has found useful in attacking the coronavirus in various efforts that they're making can be called in novio which is working on d.n.a. platforms to deal with h.p.v. virus deal with other brain cancer issues of what the kind that beau biden died from also finding a way to attack the coronavirus vaccine across a wide spectrum so when when small companies are hearing that their intellectual property rights may be waived. they may be waved across other efforts that they were making and these aren't government funded companies how do you feel about that dimension because i worry that these little firms are having the rug ripped out from underneath them after years of investment in work to try to develop things that would help mankind but it's not

a you know it's not run by the government these are private firms you know that should be no theological position on intellectual property protection those are things that shouldn't be any you know clearly living in a different universe and those who think it should be robust and draconian living in a universe most of us don't want to live in so clearly in the real world we're going to have tradeoffs between the incentives to innovate the rewards you get from innovation but also on occasion such as this one and overriding public interest. in waving property intellectual property protection the details of what biden is proposing are not clear if you look at the original demand from india and south africa that's a very sweeping the licensing they're proposing of not just sort of not just m.r.i. they design it because more traditional vaccine but a much more sweeping across the board of all the equipment ecosystems around them i don't think biden is proposing that and even if he were i don't think that's what

would come through a. consensus building process so i think the companies that ought to be most concerned about whether this is going to hit their bottom line probably. and their big suppliers. you know i think that part of the framing of this is that some of those that who advocate waving property rights see this as big companies trying to keep profits while lives are being lost and i think that framing is working for a lot of people in the world why do you think the alternative argument is. as compelling that these companies this ecosystem private public partnerships in really less than a year came up with miraculous vaccines many options in a remarkably short period of time and that's never happened before in history and so that's the alternative argument that doesn't seem to be selling as much as the

other side of it and it's a good argument i would quibble with some of the details of it the miraculous this is built on a lot of public research as well as private sector innovation as is so often the case the national institutes of health. within the pentagon oxford university of course the other side of the atlantic many science bodies publicly funded science bodies and universities have been part of this giant effort to develop these vaccines and then of course there was operation was a spate which had very generous contracts just as regardless of whether the vaccines would cost regulatory approval that gave huge commercial confidence for these companies to ramp up that and of course liability waivers so you know the idea that this is sort of pharmacies going to quit the genius in his garage just having a light bulb going on in his head and now we're punishing him for being a genius is not really how this process works there are brilliant people in the

private sector there are also brilliant people in the public sector funded by taxpayer money and taxpayers don't tend to claim patents you know at the end i have this famous spike protein that's a key part of the vaccine it gave it to me it didn't pay isn't it so the taxpayer is not getting any dividends from the shareholders of madonna and i i don't think that's balanced by taking on a global health emergency and you're one of the best observers are global affairs and america's place in the world that i know and just finally i'm interested this fact that you know as it looks like right now we're going to have a schism. with germany and france in one side maybe the americans and who knows on the other so this you know of the deadly t.-o. is a consensus based organization so this may fall flat on its face while people continue to die in india and elsewhere around the world what should we do if in fact that intellectual property waiver effort by joe biden just gets stuck in

a log jam what should we put on the table if that woman with the goes nowhere oh i think even if it does go somewhere we've got to put all of the above on the table and i agree with michelle very strongly that the biden ministration should be putting a lot more into kovacs as should the europeans the should be an old. approach to this pandemic that involves taking a lot more seriously globally than we've seen so far and if the by ministration stopped at this the 3b34b it's pledged to kovacs and the pledge to you for the trips waiver for vaccines then this would be empty gesture. diplomacy it's got to be part of a much broader sort of toolkit of emergency measures most of which we've yet to see so i would agree with strongly on that point well edward luce us national editor

for the financial times thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today thank you it's a pleasure so what is the bottom line it's easy to see the issues of vaccine patents in black and white either you're on the side of the angels and want to give away intellectual property freely for the sake of humankind or you're on the other side this side of the devils and you value cold hard cash over human lives even in the middle of a pandemic that just keeps spreading but like many debates it's really not so simple if washington was interested in equitable vaccine distribution why isn't it doing more to get vaccines to poor countries why not announce today right now a global marshall plan for vaccines and do the play. doctrine in the air lifting in the mass vaccinations to every corner of the earth the world can't wait for a long world trade organization debate on patent protection the only thing we know for sure is that this pandemic with new variants erupting around the world is testing humanity in scary ways every single day and that's the bottom line.

cultivating food is the foundation of human civilization but food today is a global commodity if the industry did not make money how many people would be and how it's cultivated a contentious debate public interest in the public safety is definitely not taking an in-depth examination into agri business and the conflicting interests at play industry doesn't want any regulation it just want to put the products on the market the price of progress. it's one of the most recognized sites around the world famed for its support from far and wide but for the fans back home it's more than just a football club and they want to policy it should be left out of football. politics

and. the passion and the politics of liverpool f.c. the defiance giant. part of the fans who make football series on al-jazeera.

israel intensifies its attacks on gaza the relentless bombardment forcing palestinian families from their homes. this is out there at live from doha also coming up the threat of a ground assault looms as israel mobilizes tanks thousands of troops at this border with gaza.