We are honored and proud that our video ‘Make pooling work for Covid-19 vaccines’ has been nominated for the Hoogvlieger Award 2022 (High Flyer Award) by the Expertise Centre for Humanitarian Communication! This Dutch award is given annually to the best (or most successful) campaign of a Dutch INGO, simultaneously with the ‘Fly in the Eye Award’ to the worst (or least successful) campaign of a Dutch INGO.
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Now available to listen back to: our webinar presenting covid19response.org, our online overview and review of international initiatives for global access to and finance for medical products against Covid-19. The webinar took place on 2 March 2022.
Wemos has launched covid19response.org, a website that provides an up-to-date overview of international initiatives by public institutions to enhance access to medical products against Covid-19, such as vaccines, medicines and diagnostics. It presents their characteristics and reviews their potential to contribute to an equitable and effective response to the current and future pandemics, as well as the support they need to become successful. Among the assessed initiatives are COVAX, the TRIPS Waiver and the South African mRNA hub.
Wemos is delighted that the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) shares its intellectual property and know-how for the production of its Covid-19 diagnostic tool with the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) of the World Health Organization (WHO). As such, CSIC permits all qualified manufacturers worldwide to make the product and distribute it to any country in the world, royalty-free for low- and middle-income countries. This is the first global, non-exclusive license for a Covid-19 innovation and thus a milestone for equal access to medical products.
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Power imbalance between pharmaceutical companies and governments underlies many problems that hamper access to medicines for all. Monopolies and the lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry should therefore be countered. This was Wemos’ call during a civil society consultation initiated by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) on the 26th of April.
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Wemos warmly welcomes the US government’s proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a temporary waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines. It is now up to the Netherlands and the European Union (EU) to follow suit. This patent waiver – which would temporarily lift patent protections – will give all pharmaceutical companies the right to also produce vaccines. This could be a breakthrough for global access to these vaccines.
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To end the corona pandemic as quickly as possible, we need to maximize the production of Covid-19 vaccines. The few pharmaceutical companies that currently produce safe and effective vaccines, should share their patent rights and knowledge, so other manufacturers can produce vaccines as well. Governments and pharmaceutical companies around the world: make pooling work!
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How can we keep medicines accessible and affordable for everyone in the Netherlands and the rest of the world? Now that the Netherlands has made a remarkably slow start with its Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the topic of access to medicines is again high on the (political) agenda. So how can we improve this access to medicines? Several candidate MPs will discuss this during The Medicines Debate (‘Het Geneesmiddelendebat’ in Dutch) on February 25th, 20:00 at the venue De Balie, which will be broadcast online.
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What did Wemos do for global health in the year that global health was under severe threat? We advocated the sharing of knowledge on Covid-19 vaccines, raised awareness on the risks of commerce in health, developed a new programme on health worker mobility in Europe, and much more. Check the highlights of our advocacy work in 2020 in our interactive overview.
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In a broadcast of De Balie on December 7, Wemos’ global health advocate
Tom Buis conducted a debate with Pia Dijkstra (Member of Parliament D66) and Bart van Zijll Langhout (Vice President Janssen) about the worldwide distribution of a corona vaccine.
