Hi John,
Yesterday, a Spanish research centre committed to share its Covid-19 test technology with the WHO (1). Remarkably, this is the first time any company or institution has put Covid-19 tech on an open license, giving manufacturers the world over access to the information needed to produce it.
The Spanish government has laid down a huge marker by taking this step, and it’s come at a highly significant moment.
Next week, Geneva hosts the highest decision-making body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Ministerial conference. On the one hand, it’s another chance for rich countries to wheel out their suited negotiators to argue over the ‘correct’ balance between saving people’s lives and preserving arcane global trade rules. On the other, it also represents a deadline rich countries set themselves for making progress on an intellectual property (IP) waiver on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests.
Can you help us put pressure on the UK government ahead of next week’s meeting by emailing the trade secretary and the UK’s WTO rep today?
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Next week’s meeting could only be a rich-country deadline. Talks over the suspension of patents on vital Covid-19 technology have been strung out over a year since India and South Africa first proposed it. Factories across the world could have been able to start producing vaccines and other Covid-19 drugs in that time. And the more countries like the UK and EU governments drag out these talks, the more people will die of Covid-19. It’s time to grasp the urgency of the situation.
But reports coming from WTO negotiations suggest that a version of an intellectual property waiver – possibly a diluted one – may be offered in exchange for trade liberalisation that would massively damage southern economies. It’s hard to put into words quite how obscene this is. People’s lives are not a bargaining chip. Support for the waiver must be complete and unconditional.
Strong political pressure is needed at this moment. As the UK continues to block progress on the waiver, we have to show the government how untenable its current position is. How an intellectual property waiver must be the first priority. We have to make clear the stakes. Which is more important: human lives, or trade laws built to serve western dominance?
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How did we get here?
Rich countries said donations would help solve vaccine inequity. They didn’t. Still only 5% of people in low-income countries (2) are fully-jabbed. Each day, 6 times more booster jabs are rolled out than first jabs. Perhaps most shockingly, last week we found out that the UK binned 600,000 doses it had allowed to expire (3).
And the British government continues to ply its wilfully ignorant line that intellectual property rules are not blocking manufacturing. Again, we ask them – if this is the case, then why do 130 countries want to suspend them?
Next week we’ll be in Geneva, working with civil society activists from the world over to make sure negotiators feel the heat. To cut through the rich country’s media spin. To support each other. Our movement is strong and we can win this with your help.
Thank you for your support,
Tim Bierley,
Pharma campaigner, Global Justice Now
Notes
- Spanish researchers share Covid antibody test tech in ‘huge precedent’ for vaccine manufacturers, City AM, 23 November 2021
- Covid-19 public data, GitHub
- ‘An absolute scandal’: UK threw away 600,000 vaccine doses after they passed expiry date, The Independent, 15 November 2021
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Help ensure Covid-19 vaccines are available to everyone, everywhere
It’s vitally important that Covid-19 vaccine patents are suspended during the pandemic, and for big pharma to share their know-how globally, as the best way of ensuring there are enough vaccines for everyone everywhere.
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