People’s Medicine Alliance & Oxfam statement at WHO Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB 13)

Statement on Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB 13)

Delivered by Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Policy Co-Lead of the People’s Medicines Alliance

Thank you

This meeting happens at time of global health challenges, and outbreaks from the US to the DRC. Avian flu, mpox and Marburg fever are just a few examples. This forces more responsibility on you to reach an agreement that ensures the protection of everyone everywhere from health crisis.

A key lesson, from the HIV crisis is that access to medical products is critical for treating people and thus for social and economic development as well as for the prevention of disease spreading.

To prevent a repeat of Covid-19 the agreement must have clear and concrete measures to ensure timely and equitable access to the relevant medical products starting from outbreaks to prevent pandemics. Local production is now a buzz word even beyond this negotiation, but how can that be established without including in the agreement legal obligations on sharing technology and removing IP barriers? The mRNA hub shows how voluntary technology transfer failed to materialise so developing countries lost the chance of accessing vaccines at the height of the crisis.

A fair PABS system is an important measure for timely and equitable access. The agreement cannot put obligations for wide scale surveillance and fast sharing of pathogens and data without obligations on sharing the benefits of: products, technology and money- resulting from the sharing of the pathogen or its data.

This agreement is about protection of all people everywhere. We heard nobody is safe until everyone is safe. But, once a Covid vaccine was available, the rhetoric was forgotten. There was no legal obligation for sharing the vaccine or its technology.

We sincerely hope that you will get us a fair agreement before May. This means legal obligations for concrete measures – not just on developing countries. Developed countries must recognise that their own safety requires concrete measures to operationalise equity. As we said before, it is time to protect people’s health not the profit of pharmaceutical companies. We are seeing the terrible effects of bending to big corporations.

Thank you

/Ends

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