The life or death question: who gets the Covid-19 vaccine?
- World Health Assembly adopts resolution calling for special treatment on patents to ensure ‘universal, timely and equitable access’
- Experts warn drug development structure and signs of protectionism send worrying signals about what distribution will look like
As the United States, China and the European Union pump billions of dollars into the research effort, and with some vaccine candidates showing promise in early results out last week, the next question becomes more pressing: if a vaccine is developed, who will get it?
With countries fast-tracking the development of candidates, the issue flared up at a meeting last week of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its 194 member states.
The assembly adopted a Covid-19 resolution, calling for special treatment of patents to ensure “universal, timely and equitable access” to vaccines and drugs. The US was not happy with the language linked to patents because it “sends the wrong message to innovators”, the US mission in Geneva said on Tuesday in a statement.
The resolution references World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules that allow governments to authorise the use of patented information without the patent holder’s permission during public health crises, for example to produce generic drugs or vaccines.
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This conflict between ownership and access in global public health is not new, but with a deadly pandemic reaching into all populated corners of the world and no cure yet available, the issue and related concerns about manufacturing and distribution are becoming contentious. And lives are at stake.