COVID-19 Pandemic

June 8, 2022: Ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference on June 12, our international allies are organising events and actions in support of a waiver on COVID19 monopolies. 

6 June, 2022: Civil society groups say a new draft text supported by the EU should be rejected because it covers only vaccines, excluding treatments and tests. It also fails to address all forms of intellectual property, restricts the countries which can make use of it, and has onerous requirements which are worse than existing WTO rules

26 May, 2022: A frontline nurse from Liberia has launched a ‘round of applause’ for the Pharma executives at the World Economic Forum who continue to make mammoth profits by lobbying against a waiver of monopolies on COVID-19 medicines at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

16 May, 2022: After more than one year of delay, more detailed negotiations to lift patent monopolies on COVID19 medicines have begun in earnest at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

May 9, 2022: AFTINET has joined with public health, human rights, and labour rights campaigners to call on Trade Minister Dan Tehan to oppose the recent draft proposal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) TRIPS Council meeting on May 6.

5 May, 2022: The WTO Director General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has announced that she will share a previously leaked proposal for a limited waiver on COVID19 vaccine monopolies with the wider WTO membership, despite an absence of agreement between key countries.

14 April, 2022: AFTINET has added its voice to an open letter addressed to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The letter, signed by more than 300 civil society organisations from across the globe, urges the leaders to reject the “unequal and inadequate” proposal on COVID19 medicine monopolies that has been leaked by the European Union (EU), and to stand firm on the original waiver proposal to the World Trade Organisation from India and South Africa.

5 April, 2022: After analysing a draft proposal at the WTO on waiving COVID19 medicines monopolies, Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF has called on all governments to reject the proposal, as it does would not achieve vaccine equity, and would set a negative precedent for future global health challenges.

24 March, 2022: Experts in public health and international trade have labelled a leaked document on COVID19 vaccine patents as “deeply flawed”, and have said that will not achieve global vaccine equity.

23 March, 2022: Together with thirteen allied organisations, AFTINET has called on the Minister for Trade, Dan Tehan, to support a stronger waiver on COVID19 monopolies at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).