Governments may have to reserve 20% of vaccines: WHO
Draft WHO agreement aims at more robust and fairer response to future pandemics | 20% of tests and drugs would go to the organisation, including 10% donated.
According to a draft of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global Pandemic Treaty, governments may have to reserve 20% of tests, vaccines or treatments for poorer countries in the event of another global disease outbreak.
The draft, as first reported by Reuters on February 1, proposes the measure to avoid the “catastrophic failure” seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the agreement is to ensure that future responses to such health emergencies are not only more effective but more equitable.
Under the proposal, the WHO would get 20% of any production of tests and drugs, with 10% donated and the rest at affordable prices for use in developing countries.
Also set to be discussed are a new WHO Global Pandemic Supply Chain and Logistics Network, and a Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system. This would see countries sharing data on pathogens and genomic sequences “within hours”, and any counter-measures developed using the data would then be accessible to all thanks to the reserves held by the WHO.
WHO member states agreed to produce the draft treaty at a summit in December last year. Precious Matsoso, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) Bureau which will develop the draft, said: “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human lives, economies and societies at large must never be forgotten.
“The best chance we have, today, as a global community, to prevent a repeat of the past is to come together, in the spirit of solidarity, in a commitment to equity, and in the pursuit of health for all, and develop a global accord that safeguards societies from future pandemic threats.”
Controversy
How IP rights will work under the new agreement is likely to be closely watched by pharmaceutical firms. The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) initiative to suspend patent protection of COVID-19 vaccines that was agreed in June last year attracted many critics, who argued that the waiver would undermine the value of innovation and competition.
Antony Taubman, director of the WTO’s IP division, told LSIPR that the measure was “a streamlined pandemic tool for governments to access vaccine technology, to address the public health need, without the agreement of the patent holders”.
The draft WHO agreement retains earlier provisions that could see pharmaceutical firms made to release details of any public contracts for vaccines and treatments during pandemics, according to Reuters.
Talks on the WHO’s Pandemic Treaty are set to start at the end of this month and continue into next year.
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