MSF medical mobile teams vaccinating Elderly people and frontline Healthcare workers in a nursing home in Tripoli Photograph by Mohamad Cheblak
Statement |

MSF intervention at WTO virtual event on TRIPS and COVID-19 vaccine equity

MSF's intervention was delivered at a virtual event titled "COVID-19 and Vaccine Equity: What Can the WTO Contribute?" held on 14 April 2021.

4 min
Photograph by Mohamad Cheblak
MSF medical mobile teams vaccinating Elderly people and frontline Healthcare workers in a nursing home in Tripoli Photograph by Mohamad Cheblak

Speaker: Dr Maria Guevara, International Medical Secretary, MSF International 

Dr. Ngozi, Excellencies and distinguished guests, thank you for this opportunity to speak and be part of this important meeting today.

We also wish to congratulate Dr Ngozi, on your appointment as Director General of WTO and welcome your inspiring leadership.

MSF has been responding to COVID-19 pandemic since January 2020. In many places where MSF works, we see first-hand the continuing global inequities in access to COVID-19 tools and vaccines. The reality on the ground is that the world is far from ensuring that all frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable groups across the world are vaccinated

Despite the unprecedented speed of vaccine development and initial scale up of manufacturing capacity, I reiterate, we are facing a scarcity issue in the here and now, as we witness inevitable manufacturing constraints, compounded by the fact, that some countries have secured many more doses than is needed to vaccinate their whole populations through bilateral deals. 

During this time of scarcity, we have to urgently address the immediate inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines. Collectively, we have to ensure all frontline healthcare workers and high-risk groups across the world are prioritised to access vaccines

In parallel, with this pandemic being far from over, we need to urgently address the scarcity issue itself. 

To meet the unprecedented global demands, this requires solutions to alleviate immediate supply limitations as well as immediate action to create enabling conditions for mid- and longer-term solutions to ensure manufacturing and supply capacity is not only increased but diversified. We must enable and develop local capacities across the world to independently contribute to a more sustainable global supply system, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The current geographically-concentrated and pharmaceutical industry-controlled, global production and supply system is simply NOT adequate to respond to this pandemic

Global supply should not be dependent on the purely commercial prerogatives and exclusive rights of pharmaceutical companies holding the technology. MSF, along with many other civil society organizations have called for the main vaccine developers to openly share their IP and transfer knowhow and technology, but so far this has not been sufficient. 

A reminder again - the pharmaceutical industry continues to reject the WHO led initiative --- COVID-19-Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) as a means to do so. Relying solely on companies’ current voluntary measures has inherent limitations and has shown to NOT adequately address the overwhelming challenges of this pandemic. 

Any voluntary mechanism must have enforceable measures to ensure world-wide coverage for supply, full transparency, clear accountability and non-exclusive terms. 

In regard to WTO, temporarily waiving relevant intellectual property that reinforces monopolies is an important contribution that the WTO as a rule-based, multilateral institution can make to support this pandemic response. MSF joins others in urging all governments to support the call for a TRIPS waiver and begin formal negotiations without delay. 

Certainly, the waiver alone cannot solve all problems we face in this pandemic, but it is an important legal option and urgent step to take amongst other measures that should be available for governments to use.  

Countries need to have new legal options to address legal uncertainties and barriers that may impede production and supply of medical products in advance, as we brace for future challenges. Preparedness and speed are key in effective emergency response.

Finally, we appeal to all WTO members to work together for a global solution that empowers all countries to protect all populations, and truly treat vaccines as a global public good. It is about saving lives at the end, not protecting systems. 

Thank you!