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Published Monday,
May 18, 2020
Costa
Rica preview technology
pooling initiative to ensure access to covid-19 health products for all By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Presidents
Carlos Alvarado and Sebastián Piñera of Chile
joined WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus on Friday to announce progress on a
technology platform that aims to lift access
barriers to effective vaccines, medicines and
other health products against covid-19.
Costa Rica proposed the idea at the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak and several countries are now backing the proposal. “Our proposal relies on solidarity,” said president Alvarado. “It’s a Solidarity call to action to the Member States, to academia, to companies, research institutions and cooperation agencies, based on global social responsibility, voluntarily, promoting more global nonexclusive voluntary licensing.” According to WHO, countries 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. "The platform will pool data, knowledge and intellectual property for existing or new covid-19 health products to deliver ‘global public goods’ for all people and all countries," said WHO in its statement. The goal is through the open sharing of science and data, numerous companies will be able to access the information they need to produce the technologies, thereby scaling up availability worldwide, lowering costs and increasing access. The platform will be officially launched on 29 May. On that date, a Solidarity Call to Action will be published on WHO’s web site where governments, research and development, institutions and companies can express their support. --------------------- Could this platform be a meaningful tool for equitable access to covid-19 health products? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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