World Health Organization

Governments around the world have implemented a wide range of protocols to control the spread of COVID-19 throughout their jurisdictions. The various intellectual property offices have recognised this is an unprecedented situation that may have an impact on the ability of right holders, applicants, opponents and their representatives to meet deadlines associated with their intellectual property rights.

●May 7　Source: www.securingindustry.com

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has opted to postpone meetings on its Illicit Trade Protocol and tobacco control until November 2021 because of the COVID-19 crisis.

The next sessions of the Conference of Parties to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP9) and the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (MOP2) had been due to take place in November 2020.

The postponed meetings will keep the same location - The Hague in the Netherlands - and will “tackle the international tobacco illicit market and promote greater collaboration with government agencies, regional and international bodies in charge of law enforcement and customs.”

●April 10　Source: twn.my

At a virtual press conference on 6 April, Dr Tedros, for the first time, also highlighted several patent-related initiatives.

The DG said that the WHO will make an announcement later this week about "a mechanism" that will include "senior people from the North and South to work out the details on how to accelerate production of new vaccines and how to ensure "equitable distribution" among all countries.

At the end of the virtual press conference, the WHO DG tore into comments made by a "couple of scientists" for insisting that Africa should be the "testing ground" for new vaccines to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a time when international solidarity is needed most for addressing the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic, "this kind of racist remarks would not help and it is against solidarity," Dr Tedros said with an angry tone.

"Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine," he said categorically.

The WHO "will follow all the rules for testing any vaccines or therapeutics in exactly the same route - whether it is Europe, Africa."

Patent-related initiatives

Amid growing international calls, particularly from the civil society organizations (CSOs), on the predatory use of patent rights for COVID-19 medicines like remdisivir, the WHO DG spoke for the first time at the press conference about patent-related initiatives.

Dr Tedros indicated that "more than 70 countries have joined WHO's Solidarity Trial to accelerate the search for an effective treatment. And about 20 institutions and companies are racing to develop a vaccine."

According to various reports, the development of a new vaccine to combat COVID-19 could take between 12 to 18 months.

But the US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has signalled that it is ready to test its new vaccine for COVID-19 soon for clinical trials.

He thanked the Medicines Patent Pool and the Geneva-based UNITAID for their initiative announced on 3 April to include "medicines and diagnostics for COVID-19 in their licensing pool."

The WHO DG also praised "the President of Costa Rica, President Carlos Alvarado, and the Health Minister, Daniel Salas, for their proposal to create a pool of rights to tests, medicines and vaccines, with free access or licensing on reasonable and affordable terms for all countries."

Dr Tedros said he will "support this proposal, and we are working with Costa Rica to finalize the details."

The DG expressed his grave concern that "poorer countries and fragile economies stand to face the biggest shock from this pandemic, and leaving anyone unprotected will only prolong the health crisis and harm economies more".

Therefore, said Dr Tedros, "all countries, companies and research institutions" must support open data, open science and open collaboration so that all people can enjoy the benefits of science and research.

Towards the end of his press conference, he came back to the patents-related issues. Dr Tedros said that the development of vaccines will be addressing two issues.

He indicated that the WHO will announce this week "a big initiative to accelerate R&D and production of vaccines and design mechanisms for equitable distribution of the vaccines."

Dr Tedros admitted for the first time that there will be a problem unless countries and companies break the "barriers" for equitable distribution of the products such as new vaccines or therapeutics for COVID-19.