WHO's C-TAP Wins its First License; Walker Text at WTO Makes Limited Space for Pending TRIPS Waiver Decision; New: The Geneva Health Files Classifieds!
Newsletter Edition #109 [The Weekly Primer]
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Hi,
Hobbled by a lack of sufficient institutional support and boycott by the industry, WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool has finally signed up for its first global, non-exclusive license for serological antibody technology.
Days from the WTO ministerial, when the TRIPS waiver is yet to become a reality, this is a small, but significant step towards what is possible in making technologies accessible.
Read this heavy-duty edition that straddles both WHO and WTO as new rules get cast in these institutions.
(Do not miss our exclusive from last week. Is the 'Walker Process' at the WTO undermining the TRIPS Waiver? You read it here first!)
In a first, we are happy to announce a special section in this newsletter - the Geneva Health Files Classifieds. We have been requested to publish special announcements, given the growing number of influential readers we are reaching. If you are an institution in global health, interested in promoting announcements, job openings, academic projects, events or webinar, get in touch with us to know more. For a nominal fee, consider a classified ad to reach our readership of thousands of engaged readers in global health.
Also check out our Black Friday sale. We are offering a 30% discount to all new subscribers who sign up before 28 November. If you are an institution interested in a group subscription, get in touch with me.
Finally, come and say hi tomorrow if you are in Geneva. I am delighted to be a part of the launch of this research report on pandemic treaty discussions. Join us in person in Geneva tomorrow, or online for the launch of the report by Geneva Global Health Hub. See you!
Until Friday.
Best,
Priti
p.s. Note that next week, we will likely have an altered publishing schedule - to report on both the World Health Assembly Special Session and the WTO Ministerial. We will keep you posted.
Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com or genevahealthfiles@protonmail.com; Follow us on Twitter: @filesgeneva
I. POLICY UPDATES
WHO / HEALTH
C-TAP
“WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) finalized a licensing agreement with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) for a COVID-19 serological antibody technology.
The test effectively checks for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies developed either in response to a COVID-19 infection or to a vaccine. This represents the first transparent, global, non-exclusive licence for a COVID-19 health tool, and the first test licence signed by MPP and included in the WHO Pool,” according to a statement by WHO. The MPP is an implementing partner of C-TAP.
The license seeks to facilitate the rapid manufacture and commercialization of CSIC’s COVID-19 serological test worldwide, and covers all related patents and the biological material necessary for manufacture of the test, a statement said.
Under the arrangement, the CSIC will provide know-how to MPP and/or to prospective licensees, apart from training. “The licence will be royalty-free for low- and middle-income countries and will remain valid until the date the last patent expires,” the statement added. The CSIC is Spain’s largest public research organization.
Since its launch in 2020, this is C-TAP’s first license that reflects the principles of the Solidarity Call to Action, top WHO officials said today. The platform was set up to provide a “one-stop-shop” for developers of COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, vaccines and other priority health technologies to share knowledge and data and license their intellectual property to additional manufacturers through public health-driven, voluntary, non-exclusive and transparent licences.
The MPP, a United Nations-backed public health organization, is a foundation under Swiss law. It works to “increase access to, and facilitate the development of, life-saving medicines for LMICs” through voluntary licensing and patent pooling. The MPP bagged two recent licenses with Merck and Pfizer using the voluntary licensing approach for COVID-19 drugs.
Also see: MSF welcomes the first open license of a COVID-19 test to WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool
IPPPR
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) has released a six-month accountability report, assessing “the linked areas of leadership and governance, financing, equity, a new legal instrument, and a stronger WHO.”
It notes the “growing momentum for a UN special summit, with support from many countries and the Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Board."
The report also acknowledges the need for “a much larger portion of WHO funds to come from assessed contributions rather than being earmarked.”
“Of grave urgent concern remains vaccine inequity - which has changed very little since May 2021. Analysis shows very low full coverage in the poorest countries – in some under 1% of the population are fully vaccinated,” a statement said.
WTO / TRADE
EXCLUSIVE: Walker Text Makes Limited Space for Pending TRIPS Waiver Decision
The Walker text on the WTO’s response to the pandemic has reportedly made space for a placeholder to include a pending/potential decision on the TRIPS Waiver, WTO top officials said this week while briefing on the proceedings of the General Council meeting.
The Walker process flows from the appointment of New Zealand’s Ambassador David Walker to work on a horizontal, multilateral process on the WTO’s response to the pandemic.
Ambassador Walker has been criticized for not allegedly not incorporating and addressing concerns of developing countries. Among other concerns, specifically, critics say that the Walker process has resisted references to the TRIPS Waiver discussions. (See our story from last week Is the 'Walker Process' at the WTO undermining the TRIPS Waiver?)
Since his appointment in June as a facilitator, the Walker process has been running in parallel to the discussions on the TRIPS Waiver led by Norwegian Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli who chairs the TRIPS Council. The WTO had said that the Walker process would not include discussions on the waiver. But closer to the Ministerial at the end of this week, Geneva-based trade officials acknowledge that “these processes cannot go on separately. And the TRIPS waiver will need to be referred in the overall WTO response to the pandemic.”
And yet, according to a report submitted to the General Council, dated November 22, many of the suggestions by developing countries to the Walker text have not been taken into consideration, sources familiar with the discussions say. The restricted document, seen by Geneva Health Files, now has a small placeholder, apparently to refer to a pending TRIPS waiver decision that could be negotiated at the Ministerial later this month.
The draft ministerial declaration submitted by Ambassador Walker, titled “General Council Facilitator Process on the WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic”, discusses issues including on notification, transparency, export restrictions, trade facilitation, regulatory coherence, the role of trade in services, and a framework of future preparedness.
In a report to the General Council (WTO document JOB/GC/281), Ambassador Walker said,
“…First, preambular language continues to confirm that the draft Declaration would not alter the rights and obligations provided in WTO agreements. The focus is on political language to reaffirm shared values and help guide our collective response to the pandemic. The intention is not to develop, for the Ministerial Conference, a new legal instrument that would modify existing rights and obligations under the WTO agreements.
Second, as indicated from the start of my work as Facilitator, proposals under significant consideration in the TRIPS Council have not been the subject of the discussions that I have convened. Throughout this process, however, delegations have acknowledged the relevance of making an outcome of the TRIPS Council considerations part of the WTO Response to the Pandemic and a number of delegations have made clear that an outcome in that area was of critical importance…
….While the draft text does not aim to duplicate discussions that are ongoing in the TRIPS Council, it now includes a placeholder in the preamble to refer to an outcome of those discussions. In addition, I have included language that does not interfere with the TRIPS Council process and that I had orally shared with delegations on earlier occasions. Preambular language thus notes the shared desire to ensure that the intellectual property system supports Members' responses to the pandemic and the Action Plan includes IP issues in the list of areas for discussion post-MC12. Finally, to reflect an area where there seems to be emerging convergence, the draft text also recalls the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health of 2001…”
The Draft Declaration also has an annex on the Action Plan on Pandemic Response, Preparedness and Resilience which seeks to establish a Pandemic Response, Preparedness and Resilience Body under the General Council.
II. WHAT WE FOUND INTERESTING
My colleague Rithika has put this together for you:
NEWS:
A tale of two pandemics: the true cost of Covid in the global south: The Guardian
Canada has thrown away at least one million COVID-19 vaccine doses: informal survey: CTV News
Moderna says EU to donate over 70 mln doses of its COVID-19 vaccine: Reuters
Germans will be ‘vaccinated, cured or dead’ by spring, warns health minister: Politico
The U.S. aims to lift Covid vaccine manufacturing to create a billion doses a year.: The New York Times
As India limits syringe exports, a supply crunch has buyers looking elsewhere.: The New York Times
Pfizer Will Allow Its Covid Pill to Be Made and Sold Cheaply in Poor Countries: The New York Times
A tale of two pandemics: the true cost of Covid in the global south: The Guardian
How Germany's new coalition could change the fate of the TRIPs waiver: Devex
Genetic engineering: why some fear the next pandemic could be lab-made: Financial Times
Uncertainties over a treaty persist ahead of WHA special session: Devex
The Pandemic Treaty Proposal expands global health inequities: People’s Dispatch
Boards and investors can help solve global vaccine inequity: Peter Singer, Linkedin
JOURNALS/REPORTS
The Pandemic Treaty Proposal expands global health inequities: People’s Dispatch
Human Rights Must Guide a Pandemic Treaty: Health and Human Rights Journal
Navigating the violent process of decolonisation in global health research: a guideline: The Lancet Global Health
Pandemic Vaccine Trials in Low- and Middle-Income Countries and Global Health Security: JAMA Network Open
Losing time: End this pandemic and secure the future: the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
III. WHAT WE ARE WATCHING
WTO General Council Meeting: 22-23 November
WHO: Informal Consultation on WHASS Draft Decision, Organized by the Group of Friends of the Treaty (GoF): 22, 24 November
IV. TWEET OF THE WEEK
Former Ambassador, trade negotiator and Chairman of the Appellate Body:
V. The Geneva Health Files CLASSIFIEDS
A special announcement from the secretariat of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board:
A call for expressions of interest has been opened for individuals to serve as members of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB).
The GPMB is an independent body for global monitoring and high-level political advocacy towards the goal of making the world safer from the effects and impact of health crises. The GPMB is co-convened by the WHO Director-General and the President of the World Bank.
GPMB members are appointed based on their leadership, reputation, and capacity to perform their functions as a GPMB member, and with a view to ensuring diversity and balance in gender, geography, and sectoral experience. Full details on GPMB membership profile, roles, responsibilities and how to register can be found here.
The deadline for submissions is 3 December 2021 24:00 CET. Selection of co-chairs and members of the GPMB is expected to be completed by late December 2021.
Any questions on the process for submitting an expression of interest can be sent to: gpmbmembership@who.int.
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