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As the enormity of COVID-19 started to become apparent, we gathered reliable information on existing and emerging technologies that could be used to mitigate the consequences for the global population.
Here you can find the resources compiled for policy makers that provide more information on medical technologies for COVID-19 that you can use in your day-to-day work.
Here you can find the resources compiled for journalists that provide more information on medical technologies for COVID-19 that you can use in your day-to-day work.
Report: Licensing and Access to Health Technologies
This report looks not only at legal and administrative hurdles, such as intellectual property rights, but also at the internal policy dilemmas faced by professionals and institutions. It provides a comprehensive list of recommendations to help secure improved access to health technologies developed with public support.
Policy Paper: The TRIPS Agreement Laid Bare
This policy paper that provides an account of the history of the TRIPS agreement and TRIPS flexibilities, their evolution, and the lessons learnt from the efforts to ensure a more equitable access to health technologies, particularly in relation to COVID-19.
Report: Clinical Trial Integrity and COVID-19
The report COVID-19 Clinical Trial Integrity: Impacts on global health and the future European Regulatory Agenda reviews the integrity of clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, repurposed drugs and non-pharmaceutical interventions, discusses the factors driving research successes and failures and their impacts on global health, and explores the implications for future European and global regulatory agendas.
TRIPS Waiver: The Push Continues
It has now been over a year since India and South Africa put the TRIPS waiver proposal on the table. In that time, it has received the backing of over 100 Member States, with 63 formally co-sponsoring the proposal, mainly from the Global South, but others, including the US (albeit only for patent on vaccines) have also supported the proposal. Sadly, progress towards agreeing the TRIPS waiver, that would allow for the much needed the scale-up of manufacturing of the medical technologies essential to ending this pandemic, has been thwarted by a small group of rich countries and blocs, chiefly the EU, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Japan.
European Commission is offering no meaningful solutions for equitable access
Over 200 civil society organisations from around the world have signed a letter the European Commission and EU Member States urging them to engage in text-based negotiations for a TRIPS waiver. The signatories to the letter point out that communications from the Commission to the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Council offer no meaningful solutions for equitable access to vaccines & other health technologies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oproep aan Nederlandse regering: toon politieke daadkracht tijdens topconferenties en promoot eerlijke toegang tot Covid-19 vaccins
De Nederlandse regering kan dit najaar een belangrijke bijdrage leveren aan het bestrijden van de wereldwijde coronacrisis. Er staan drie internationale topconferenties op de agenda waarop Nederland zijn steun kan uitspreken voor het tijdelijk opheffen van intellectuele eigendomsrechten voor medische producten tegen Covid-19, waaronder vaccins. In een gezamenlijke brief roepen maatschappelijke organisaties Health Action International, Wemos, Oxfam Novib en Cordaid het kabinet op om politieke daadkracht te tonen.
COVID-19: European Commission gives lacklustre response to legitimate civil society concerns
Along with over 200 other civil society organisations, on 29th June we wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In our letter, we requested that the European Union (EU) engage in text-based negotiations on South Africa and India’s TRIPS waiver proposal and that they should avoid further disruptions of the multilateral dialogue.
European Commission’s State of the Union address: Reflection and Transparency Notable Absences
In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the Union address. The purpose of the speech is to reflect on the previous year and to set out the priorities for the next: the title, Strengthening the Soul of the Union, is indicative of the reflective tone of the President, as she considered a difficult year for the bloc.
C-TAP has not (yet) lived up to high expectations
One year ago, as the scale and gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic had become painfully clear, we looked to the launch of the COVID-19 Technologies Access Pool (C-TAP) with high expectations of fulfilling the goal of making vaccines and other medical technologies truly global public goods.
A Pandemic Response Lacking Moral Leadership
In October 2020, eight months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, India and South Africa submitted a proposal for a temporary waiver on certain articles of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) TRIPS Agreement. This so-called TRIPS waiver would cover patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property (IP) protection elements of COVID-19-related health technologies, including vaccines. The idea has since been welcomed and supported by many governments at WTO (57 are now co-sponsors), civil society from across the world, and other stakeholders, such as researchers and economists. Yet it has been met with a mixture of incredulity and hostility from pharma and a small group of countries, who have spared no effort to stifle any debate on the merits of the proposal.
MPs and MEPs Call for TRIPS Waiver
In a statement, hundreds of MEPs and MPs demanded real text-based negotiations for a TRIPS Waiver at the World Trade Organization and for the European Commission to stop harming its moral stature by putting pharma interest (and patents) before patients’ lives.
Here you can find the resources compiled for journalists that provide more information on medical technologies for COVID-19 that you can use in your day-to-day work.
European Commission is offering no meaningful solutions for equitable access
Over 200 civil society organisations from around the world have signed a letter the European Commission and EU Member States urging them to engage in text-based negotiations for a TRIPS waiver. The signatories to the letter point out that communications from the Commission to the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Council offer no meaningful solutions for equitable access to vaccines & other health technologies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
No Profit on a Pandemic
The No Profit on Pandemic campaign is a European Citizens’ Initiative calling on the European Commission to do everything in its power to make anti-pandemic vaccines and treatments a global public good, accessible to everyone. The initiative aims to collect one million signatures in support of equal access to vaccines by May 2022.
Oproep aan Nederlandse regering: toon politieke daadkracht tijdens topconferenties en promoot eerlijke toegang tot Covid-19 vaccins
De Nederlandse regering kan dit najaar een belangrijke bijdrage leveren aan het bestrijden van de wereldwijde coronacrisis. Er staan drie internationale topconferenties op de agenda waarop Nederland zijn steun kan uitspreken voor het tijdelijk opheffen van intellectuele eigendomsrechten voor medische producten tegen Covid-19, waaronder vaccins. In een gezamenlijke brief roepen maatschappelijke organisaties Health Action International, Wemos, Oxfam Novib en Cordaid het kabinet op om politieke daadkracht te tonen.
COVID-19: European Commission gives lacklustre response to legitimate civil society concerns
Along with over 200 other civil society organisations, on 29th June we wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In our letter, we requested that the European Union (EU) engage in text-based negotiations on South Africa and India’s TRIPS waiver proposal and that they should avoid further disruptions of the multilateral dialogue.
European Commission’s State of the Union address: Reflection and Transparency Notable Absences
In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the Union address. The purpose of the speech is to reflect on the previous year and to set out the priorities for the next: the title, Strengthening the Soul of the Union, is indicative of the reflective tone of the President, as she considered a difficult year for the bloc.
C-TAP has not (yet) lived up to high expectations
One year ago, as the scale and gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic had become painfully clear, we looked to the launch of the COVID-19 Technologies Access Pool (C-TAP) with high expectations of fulfilling the goal of making vaccines and other medical technologies truly global public goods.
A Pandemic Response Lacking Moral Leadership
In October 2020, eight months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, India and South Africa submitted a proposal for a temporary waiver on certain articles of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) TRIPS Agreement. This so-called TRIPS waiver would cover patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property (IP) protection elements of COVID-19-related health technologies, including vaccines. The idea has since been welcomed and supported by many governments at WTO (57 are now co-sponsors), civil society from across the world, and other stakeholders, such as researchers and economists. Yet it has been met with a mixture of incredulity and hostility from pharma and a small group of countries, who have spared no effort to stifle any debate on the merits of the proposal.
MPs and MEPs Call for TRIPS Waiver
In a statement, hundreds of MEPs and MPs demanded real text-based negotiations for a TRIPS Waiver at the World Trade Organization and for the European Commission to stop harming its moral stature by putting pharma interest (and patents) before patients’ lives.
Over 100 MEPs call for a TRIPS Waiver
In a declaration to the European Commission and European Council, a cross-party group of 115 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have urged the European Commission and the European Council to drop their opposition to the TRIPS waiver proposal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Such a waiver would enable greater access to affordable COVID-19 health technologies, including vaccines, in particular for developing and middle income countries.
COVID-19 exposes weak health systems
In Health Action International’s 40 years exploring and offering solutions to the eternal problem of weak health systems, we have never encountered a situation in which these weaknesses were so laid bare, or as damaging, as they have been during recent pandemics, such as Ebola and now COVID-19.
COVID-19 Technology Access Pool
The launch of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) in April 2020 will be remembered as a milestone in global health.
Ensure transparency, affordability and availability of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, say MEPs
A cross-party group of 33 MEPs has written to the European Commission expressing concern at how EU-funded medical tools and technologies for COVID-19 (diagnostics, vaccines and treatments) will be made available, accessible and affordable for patients in Europe and beyond.
TRIPS flexibilities and access to medicines
Access to medicines and other health technologies is an essential element in improving our health and well-being, and even more so in a pandemic. Affordability is also critical to making universal health coverage a reality. Sky-rocketing prices of new, patented medicines are straining public health budgets and jeopardising access in the European Union (EU).
Guidelines for socially responsible management of innovation
Public money plays a pivotal role in the development of new health technologies. The European research framework programme Horizon 2020, for example, dedicated €7.5 billion between 2014 and 2020 to publicly-funded health research in Europe, of which €1.6 billion alone flowed into the Innovative Medicines Initiative.
