Berlin, June 25 (TIWN) German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended patent protection for Covid-19 vaccines in a government statement in the Bundestag or the lower house of Parliament.

She said she was convinced that "we need to increase the production of vaccines on the basis of licenses as quickly as possible".  The world will "continue to depend on vaccines being developed in the future", Merkel said in the German government's statement on the June 24-25 European Council meeting in Brussels.  "This will only succeed if the protection of intellectual property is not overridden but is preserved."  At their summit, the EU's heads of state and government will discuss, among other things, the progress of the Covid vaccination campaign and the global distribution of vaccines.  Merkel emphasised that the decision to jointly procure vaccines in Europe was right.