Announcing a new world health order

“A new international health order is being formed. We desperately need to defeat vaccine apartheid which threatens our very survival, calls into question the sovereignty of the South and poses the risk of further deadly mutations of this virus”, he added. say it Summit coordinator and member of Progressive International, Ana Caistor Arendar.

“We are looking for alternative mechanisms for universal access, taking into account the fact that we have production capacities for the development of vaccines”, added in the same direction the former Minister of Health of Ecuador, Carina Vance Mafla, during the press conference which closed the meeting.

Concretely, during the summit, commitments were made in five areas: an open collaboration on vaccine technologies, solidarity prices for these drugs, the sharing of the capacities of regulatory agencies, the pooling of manufacturing capacities and the promotion of a “collective disobedience to challenge the monopoly” of intellectual property. large laboratories of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Regarding the collaboration of technologies and solidarity prices, Cuba and Mexico announced their decision to offer their vaccine candidates open licenses so that they can be produced in other countries and at low cost.

These are the Cubans Soberana 02, Abdala and Mambisa, the first two of the third and final phase of clinical trials and that Venezuela has already announced that it will also manufacture on its territory, and the Mexican Patria who is preparing to start phase 3 and should be ready for authorization by the end of the year.

Sharing the capacity of regulatory bodies was another key decision and one that Argentina has already started by extending to Mexico, Paraguay, Bolivia and Ecuador the Sputnik V data analyzed by the National Medicines Administration. , food and medical technology (Anmat), which approval of the use of the Russian drug in these countries.

At the top Health Minister Carla Vizzotti said this collaboration is open to any government that needs it: “We are extending this cooperation to all countries of the world, especially those in the African region. It is a pleasure to be able to offer our regulatory capacity to the world ”.

The official also announced that the country “plans to immediately start exporting” locally produced vaccines “once Argentina’s needs are met.”

The regional collaboration targets not only vaccines, but also coronavirus tests, protective gear and medicinal oxygen, among other supplies.

In this sense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Jorge Arreaza, proposed to the participants “to draw up a map of the productive and health potential” of each region and a platform allowing to know the needs and to share the technology for satisfy them.

One point that has crossed the whole debate is the monopoly of patents on the anti-ovoid vaccines which are administered today on a massive scale, and the slowness at the WTO of the proposal to temporarily lift them due to the rejection of the European Union. , United Kingdom and Switzerland. , headquarters of large pharmaceutical companies.

“Access to life-saving medicines shouldn’t be dictated by where you live,” said Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter, ambassador to the agency from South Africa, a country which, along with India, presented the initiative to suspend intellectual property in October last year.

In this sense, participants called for the promotion of national legislation that challenges this model, such as that presented in Chile by Congressman Giorgio Jackson, which was approved in the House but ended up being blocked by President Sebastián Piñera.

Bolivia suggested that others maintain efforts within the WTO and move forward alongside compulsory licensing, a flexibility envisaged in the international agreement that now governs intellectual property.

The country has signed an agreement with Canadian company Biolyse Pharma to manufacture and import 15 million single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines through a license that allows, in special cases like this pandemic, other companies to manufacture products. patented in exchange for a royalty for who owns the intellectual property.

But this agreement is currently blocked by the government of Canada which does not grant this authorization, which during the summit was described as “shameful” by the Canadian opposition parliamentarian Niki Ashton, who promised to work with the Bolivians. to put pressure on the administration of Prime Minister Justin. Trudeau.

“We invite any interested country to collaborate with local manufacturers and join us, to announce their intention to invoke a compulsory licensing order. If we act together, governments may be forced to approve these initiatives,” he said. he said at the meeting. Minister of Foreign Trade of Bolivia, Benjamín Blanco.