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WHO, WTO, WIPO agree to support global access to medical technologies to tackle COVID-19

Daren Tang, WIPO Director-General (far left), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General (centre), and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General (far right) Photo: WIPO/Berrod

*The United Nations’ agencies say they will collaborate on practical, capacity-building workshops to enhance flow of updated information on current developments in the pandemic and responses to achieve equitable access to COVID-19 health technologies worldwide

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

In a joint effort at combating the damaging virus, the Directors-General of the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), World Trade Organisation (WTO), and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) have all agreed to enhance their support to members battling the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by collaborating on a series of workshops.

ConsumerConnect learnt Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (WHO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (WTO) and Daren Tang of WIPO, who are leaders of the three global organisations at their recent meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, disclosed the objective is to augment the flow of information on the pandemic and implement a joint platform for tripartite technical assistance to member governments relating to their needs for medical technologies.

Their joint communiqué issued June 15, 2021 stated that the Directors-General of WHO, WIPO and the WTO, met in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity to map out further collaboration to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressing global challenges at the intersection of public health, intellectual property and trade.

Acutely conscious of our shared responsibility to communities across the world as they confront a health crisis of unprecedented severity and scale, they “pledged to bring the full extent of the expertise and resources of our respective institutions to bear in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and improving the health and well-being of all people, everywhere around the globe.

We underscored our commitment to universal, equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other health technologies ─ a commitment anchored in the understanding that this is an urgent moral imperative in need of immediate practical action.”

According to the leaders, it was agreed that they build further on their long-standing commitment to WHO-WIPO-WTO Trilateral Cooperation that aims to support and assist all countries as they seek to assess and implement sustainable and integrated solutions to public health challenges.

“Within this existing cooperative framework, we agreed to enhance and focus our support in the context of the pandemic through two specific initiatives,” they noted.

The statement also said the three agencies would collaborate on the organisation of practical, capacity-building workshops to enhance the flow of updated information on current developments in the pandemic and responses to achieve equitable access to COVID-19 health technologies.

They said: “The aim of these workshops is to strengthen the capacity of policymakers and experts in member governments to address the pandemic accordingly.

“The first workshop in the series will be a workshop on technology transfer and licensing, scheduled for September.

“The workshop will help our members to update their knowledge and understanding of how Intellectual Property, know-how and technology transfer work in actuality.

“This would be in the context of medical technologies but also related products and services.  This first workshop will be followed by others on related practical themes.”

The joint statement also disclosed that the three organisations would implement a joint platform for tripartite technical assistance to countries relating to their needs for COVID-19 medical technologies, providing a one-stop shop that will make available the full range of expertise on access, IP and trade matters provided by these organisations, and other partners, in a coordinated and systematic manner.

“The platform for technical assistance will, in particular, support countries to assess and prioritse unmet needs for COVID-19 Vaccines, medicines and related technologies, and provide timely and tailored technical assistance in making full use of all available options to access vaccines, medicines and technologies, including through coordination between members facing similar challenges to facilitate collective responses,” WHO, WTO and WIPO stated.

They further stressed that initiatives would also be underpinned by their joint efforts to collect and make accessible robust and inclusive data needed to guide an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statement said: “This will include a periodical update of the overview of COVID 19-related measures that are mapped in a key resource for trilateral cooperation, the WHO-WIPO-WTO publication Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections Between Public Health, Intellectual Property And Trade”, published in 2020.”

The World Health Organisation, World Trade Organisation and World Intellectual Property Organisation have, since 2009, stepped up their cooperation and practical coordination on issues relating to public health, IP information and trade, according to report.

This trilateral cooperation is intended to enhance the empirical and factual information basis for policymakers and to support them in addressing public health in relation to IP and trade.

The cooperation has entailed a series of practical technical assistance activities, at the national, regional and mulitilateral levels, a series of high-level Policy Symposia intended to track emerging issues and inform future policy, and the trilateral study.

This provides a comprehensive overview of the full array of policy issues with bearing on innovation and access to medical technologies around the world.

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