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Hi John,
I’ve been hearing a lot on the news this week about who will get the new vaccine first in this country, how we can get the vaccine to care homes and how many vaccine centres are being set up. And it's exciting for us to start imagining how our lives could change as this vaccine gets rolled out.
But I want people who live in Pakistan, Colombia, the Philippines and other countries to also share the same excitement. Unfortunately, countries in the global south are at the back of the queue. And that's because profits are more important to pharmaceutical companies than public health.
Watch and share our video with voices from the politicians in the global south.
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But there’s a plan to change this. The governments of India and South Africa have put a proposal on the table of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to suspend the global trade rules on patents for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
Pharmaceutical companies are preventing other manufacturers from making their vaccines through their patents as well as keeping the technical know-how under wraps. By not allowing others to make the vaccines, pharmaceutical companies get to rake in the profits and please their shareholders while people lose their lives because there are not enough doses to go round.
The world’s countries are meeting this week to discuss the proposal to suspend patents to save lives during this crisis. If approved it would seriously disrupt the corporate grip over vaccines and put people first.
While 100 countries support this plan, there is a small group of rich countries opposed. And one of them is the UK. Unless there is unanimity at the WTO, this plan will fail. The countries opposed to the proposal are also the same countries that have used their power and wealth to buy up vaccines over the past few months.
While our allies put pressure on their governments to change their minds, we need to put pressure on ours.
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Twenty years ago, the pharmaceutical industry used their power and influence to rig the global rules on patents at the WTO in their favour. Now is a real opportunity to unravel that corporate stitch-up and help save lives.
Thank you for your support
Heidi Chow
Campaigner at Global Justice Now
PS. Today from 2pm UK time our friends at MSF are leading a global Twitter storm targeting the countries blocking a patent suspension at the WTO. If you're on Twitter, get involved here:[link removed]
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