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19 May 2020AfricaSarah Morgan

WHO and Costa Rica to launch COVID-19 technology patent pool

The  World Health Organisation (WHO) and Costa Rica will  launch a technology pooling initiative to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a planned launch of May 29, the platform will pool data, knowledge and IP for existing or new COVID-19 health products to deliver “global public goods” for all people and all countries.

Announcing the pool, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica said: “Our proposal relies on solidarity. It’s a solidarity call to action to member states, to academia, to companies, research institutions and cooperation agencies, based on global social responsibility, on a voluntary basis, promoting more global nonexclusive voluntary licensing.”

Costa Rica  asked the WHO to establish a voluntary pool back in late March, for technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shortly after, associations and individuals  lobbied the WHO to build the pool, which they said would “allow for competitive and accelerated production” of needed COVID-19 technologies.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “We need to unleash the full power of science, without caveats or restrictions, to deliver innovations that are scalable, usable, and benefit everyone, everywhere, at the same time.”

Ghebreyesus added that “traditional market models will not deliver at the scale needed to cover the entire globe”.

Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera also joined the announcement. On behalf of the president, ambassador Cristian Streeter said: “Chile, like most countries in the international community, considers that only through international cooperation is it possible to emerge victorious from the crisis caused by COVID-19.”

Negotiations continue

Yesterday, May 19, ministers and officials from member states met for the annual World Health Assembly (WHA). The conference, which continues today, is expected to be dominated by negotiations over a resolution that, in part, establishes a voluntary pool.

In mid-April, the EU submitted a draft resolution covering a global COVID-19 response. After weeks of negotiations and disputes over the language of the resolution, it is hoped that the new redrafted resolution will now be passed.

However, non-governmental organisation Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has  claimed that  the redrafted resolution is “weak” and that it is a “far cry from what needed to be said”.

“No monopolies in a pandemic should be the message here, and when it could make a difference on this issue, the WHA dropped the ball giving us the typical watered down, lawyered ambiguity that will mean little to most readers, if it’s read at all,” said KEI.

The redrafted resolution also narrows the mandate to “existing mechanisms” for voluntary pooling and licensing of patents.

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed initiative,  said it welcomed the resolution’s call to work collaboratively through “existing mechanisms for voluntary pooling and licensing of patents”.

MPP added: “As the only existing patent pooling mechanism in the public health field, we stand ready to play that role. We look forward to working with the WHO, member states and other key stakeholders to make that possible.”

The extent to which the voluntary pool will be taken up is unclear, with some countries pushing against the idea.

In mid-March, US President Donald Trump caused anger after  reportedly offering $1 billion to CureVac, a Germany-based company seeking a COVID-19 vaccine, to move its operations to the US.

Late last week, Sanofi faced criticism after its CEO said the US was likely to have priority access on any COVID-19 vaccine produced by the French pharmaceutical company.

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More on this story

Africa
29 May 2020   The World Health Organization has launched a COVID-19 technology pool, with 37 countries and multiple international partners and institutions rallying together to support the initiative.
Americas
20 May 2020   The US has joined consensus on a World Health Organization resolution on the global handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but disassociated itself from the IP and reproductive health services wording within the resolution.
Big Pharma
26 June 2020   The executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool says it should have a role in fighting COVID-19, but it’s up to stakeholders to agree what that will be.

More on this story

Africa
29 May 2020   The World Health Organization has launched a COVID-19 technology pool, with 37 countries and multiple international partners and institutions rallying together to support the initiative.
Americas
20 May 2020   The US has joined consensus on a World Health Organization resolution on the global handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but disassociated itself from the IP and reproductive health services wording within the resolution.
Big Pharma
26 June 2020   The executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool says it should have a role in fighting COVID-19, but it’s up to stakeholders to agree what that will be.