Tuesday, March 14, 2023: The People’s Vaccine Alliance issued a letter by 204 eminent global figures on March 11, the third anniversary of the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), calling for governments to act in four ways:
Media Release February 27, 2023
World Health Organisation (WHO) member governments will meet in Geneva this evening AEDT to start debating a draft Pandemic Treaty intended to learn from the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and develop better strategies for future pandemics, to be completed in 2024.
Leading public health, fair trade, church, human rights and aid and development organisations have written to the Ministers responsible for Health, Foreign Affairs and Trade asking them not to repeat the “catastrophic moral failure” of inequitable global access to COVID vaccines, treatments and tests. The letter is attached. Quotes from organisation leaders are below.
February 8, 2023: The World Health Organization (WHO)’s first or ‘zero-draft’ for a treaty on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response would commit Member States to support temporary waivers of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules for 20-year monopolies on pandemic related products. This would enable developing countries to scale up manufacturing of cheaper products, and increase the availability of affordable pandemic-related products.
January 24, 2023: Australia’s ABC News has reported that the US Food and Drug Administration has claimed that it found sub-standard production processes of generic medicines at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries’ production facility at Halol, Gujrat. The FDA does not accept the company’s response as adequate, and could block the entry of its products into the USA.
Media Release December 15, 2022: The same dynamics that slowed and watered down the decision on the initial TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO) now look likely to prevent a timely decision on expanding the waiver to cover treatments and tests. Calls for an extension to the original deadline of 17 December 2022 being led by the EU, Switzerland, Japan and the UK have been slammed by an alliance of health, human rights and fair-trade organisations.
December 6, 2022: Today the World Trade Organisation Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Council (WTO TRIPS Council) is meeting in Geneva to discuss the proposal from developing countries to extend the June WTO decision to waive some patent rights for COVID vaccines to cover COVID treatments and tests. This would expand access to treatments and tests to millions of people in low-income countries.
Associate Professor Deborah Gleeson and colleagues presented the evidence for expanding the waiver in this Conversation article: https://theconversation.com/intellectual-property-waiver-for-covid-vaccines-should-be-expanded-to-include-treatments-and-tests-194918
Wednesday, October 26, 2022: According to a Reuters report, Pfizer official Angela Lukin says that the company will sell the COVID-19 vaccine through normal commercial channels, in a single-dose vial, and it will be priced at US$110 – US$130 per dose for adults.
Thursday, October 20, 2022: In an article for Pandemic, Philip Schellekens, a Senior Advisor at World Bank Group, reports there are 2.5 billion unvaccinated people today. They have not had their first shot. A staggering 90 per cent live in the developing world and 71 per cent in the poorer half of the world. Tracking the COVID-19 unvaccinated across countries rich and poor highlights the regressive outcome of the global vaccination campaign so far.
September 15, 2022: The first known Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) claim concerning COVID-19 pandemic-related regulation was registered by French airport operating companies ADP International and Vinci Airports in August 2021 against Chile. The companies are arguing that Chile’s decision to close its borders during the height of the pandemic cost them US$37 million.
August 16, 2022: Yesterday the Australian and Victorian governments announced a 10 year contract for public funding for pharmaceutical company Moderna to partner with Monash University to produce mRNA vaccines in Australia.
The manufacturing project aims to protect Australians against future pandemics, support local industry and create highly skilled local jobs, all of which are welcome goals. The project follows a separate research initiative of Monash University and the Doherty Institute which is conducting clinical trials for a new generation vaccine designed to protect against the Omicron variant.