<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><b class=""><i class="">Related: please retweet this thread about the ongoing “Days of Action for Global Vaccine & Treatment Equity” in the lead-up to the WTO ministerial:</i></b></div><div class=""><a href="https://twitter.com/TradeJusticeEd/status/1533775855993823232?s=20&t=VyiwNNvjj6569Hy3pJMztQ" class="">https://twitter.com/TradeJusticeEd/status/1533775855993823232?s=20&t=VyiwNNvjj6569Hy3pJMztQ</a> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/msf-governments-negotiating-wto-get-it-right-and-adopt-real-trips-waiver" class="">https://reliefweb.int/report/world/msf-governments-negotiating-wto-get-it-right-and-adopt-real-trips-waiver</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="field-name-post-date field-label-hidden field-type-ds field"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">06/06/2022</div></div></div><div class="field-name-title field-label-hidden field-type-ds field"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h1 class="">MSF to governments negotiating at WTO: get it right and adopt the real TRIPS Waiver</h1></div></div></div><div class="field-type-text-long field-label-hidden field field-name-field-auxtext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="">To
effectively increase people’s access to all COVID medical tools,
governments must return to TRIPS Waiver proposed over 20 months ago.</p></div></div></div></div><div class=""><div class="field-label-hidden field-name-body field field-type-text-with-summary"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="">At
the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council Meeting (7 June) and
the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (12 – 15 June), governments are
expected to continue negotiations on a problematic draft text presented
in early May that, if adopted as it stands, could set a negative
precedent for efforts to increase access to medicines, vaccines and
diagnostic tests now and in the future.</p><p class="">Médecins Sans
Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) again urged governments to
reject this early May draft text, and instead take this opportunity to
adopt the real ‘TRIPS Waiver’ – proposed 20 months ago and supported by
more than 100 governments – as it would provide an effective way to help
increase people’s access to all COVID medical tools.</p><p class=""><b class="">Yuanqiong Hu, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor for MSF's Access Campaign:</b></p><p class="">“The
original TRIPS Waiver proposed 20 months ago aimed to tackle
intellectual property barriers for all COVID medical tools by making it
easier for any country to increase production and supply during the
pandemic, so adopting it should have been an urgent and essential
priority for the global pandemic response. This is the last chance for
governments to finally do the right thing and come back to the original
spirit of the TRIPS Waiver proposal that had the support of over 100
governments, international health institutions, civil society groups and
millions of people across the globe – the resounding call has been that
there should be no monopolies in a pandemic.</p><p class="">People’s access to
important COVID treatments and diagnostics remains challenging in many
developing countries due in part to intellectual property barriers and
restrictive licencing by pharmaceutical corporations – the original
TRIPS Waiver would help overcome these barriers and make countries more
self-reliant in providing lifesaving medical tools to their people.
Against the backdrop of a pandemic that WHO estimates has already
claimed almost 15 million lives, and in which there has been grave
inequity in access to medical tools, we want to see governments urgently
come up with a true intellectual property waiver that covers
treatments, vaccines and tests and is free for any country to use.</p><p class="">We
are gravely concerned that the text currently being used as the basis
for negotiations is categorically different than the original TRIPS
Waiver proposal and contains multiple issues that need to be
substantively addressed. We don’t want to see a decision at WTO that
could take us in the wrong direction and may end up setting a <a href="https://msf.or.ke/en/magazine/neither-waiver-people-need-nor-solution-fit-pandemic" class="">negative precedent</a>, including by limiting existing public health safeguards.”</p></div></div></div></div><div class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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