Statement: G7 Leaders, WHO Members Must Support COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and Increase Global Vaccine Production
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada called on all WHO member states to support the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), a platform to share intellectual property, know-how and medical technology with the world, and to assist in the production of tests, treatments and vaccines. A Public Citizen report found that the global community could retrofit manufacturing facilities to produce eight billion doses of mRNA vaccine in one year. Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, issued the following statement:
“Perhaps even crueler than hoarding vaccine doses is hoarding knowledge of medical technology that can end the pandemic.
“President Joe Biden, the G7 and other leaders have the power to share vaccine recipes with the world and cooperate with WHO to urgently produce billions more doses. This may be the surest path out of this pandemic and among the best ways the world can prepare for the future, and C-TAP is a platform to make that happen. States, vaccine makers and researchers can come together at WHO to share clinical data, best manufacturing practices, and the legal rights to produce tests, treatments and vaccines.
“Other countries should join the 100-plus countries, including the U.S., supporting a waiver of World Trade Organization-intellectual property barriers and President Biden and G7 leaders should ensure the quick adoption of the proposed TRIPS waiver, covering all pandemic-related technologies and removing legal obstacles to their production, and support C-TAP to facilitate the proactive sharing of these medical tools.
“We salute DG Tedros, President Alvarado and the 42 states that have declared their support for the Solidarity Call to Action. We urge President Biden and the G7 leaders to support and fully fund C-TAP and call on vaccine manufacturers to join them.”