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26 March 2020Americas

Costa Rica asks WHO to create voluntary COVID-19 IP pool

The Costa Rican government has asked the  World Health Organization (WHO) to create a voluntary pool to collect patent rights for technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a  letter sent to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday, March 23, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and health minister Daniel Salas Peraza asked WHO to develop the pool.

“Given the urgency of this matter, Costa Rica proposes that the WHO develop an initial concise memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the intent to share rights in technologies funded by the public sector and other relevant actors, and reach out to WHO member states, non-profit institutions, industry and others, to sign such an MoU,” said the letter.

According to Costa Rica, the pool should include existing and future rights in patented inventions and designs, and rights in regulatory test data, know-how, cell lines, copyrights and blueprints for manufacturing diagnostic tests, devices, drugs, or vaccines.

The pool should provide for free access or licensing on “reasonable and affordable terms”, in every member country, added the letter.

The Costa Rican officials also asked WHO to create a database of research and development activity related to COVID-19, including estimates of the costs of clinical trials, and the subsidies provided by governments and charities.

Compulsory licensing

Other governments are considering different ways to ramp up their fight against the pandemic.

The Chilean Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress)  approved a resolution asking the Chilean government to declare that there is justification for compulsory licences.

In Ecuador, a committee in the National Assembly  approved a resolution asking the Minister of Health to issue licences that would allow the government to sidestep patents related to Covid-19 medical technologies.

Meanwhile, Israel has  approved generic versions of an HIV antiviral owned by  AbbVie for use in treating coronavirus, despite the company still holding patent protection.


More on this story

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1 February 2021   More than 250 million rapid COVID-19 tests will be made available for low and middle-income countries as part of a World Health Organization initiative to accelerate the global response to the virus.
Big Pharma
9 September 2021   Australia will waive IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines to enable more cost-effective copycat versions to be manufactured in developing countries, in the wake of mounting pressure from human rights groups and governments worldwide.
Europe
11 March 2021   The UK has been urged to back a proposed IP waiver related to COVID-19 treatments before the World Trade Organisation by business leaders, academics, economists and trade unions.

More on this story

Americas
1 February 2021   More than 250 million rapid COVID-19 tests will be made available for low and middle-income countries as part of a World Health Organization initiative to accelerate the global response to the virus.
Big Pharma
9 September 2021   Australia will waive IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines to enable more cost-effective copycat versions to be manufactured in developing countries, in the wake of mounting pressure from human rights groups and governments worldwide.
Europe
11 March 2021   The UK has been urged to back a proposed IP waiver related to COVID-19 treatments before the World Trade Organisation by business leaders, academics, economists and trade unions.