Unitaid

SouthViews No. 200, 16 June 2020

Making Covid-19 Medical Products Affordable: Voluntary Patent Pool and TRIPS Flexibilities

By Sudip Chaudhuri

The proposal of Costa Rica to create a voluntary pool mechanism for medical products and technologies for COVID-19 has evoked huge interest and optimism. The World Health Organization (WHO) and Costa Rica have followed it up through a Solidarity Call emphasizing the need for voluntary licensing on non-exclusive basis to the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). The success of a voluntary pool critically depends on the willingness of the patentees to join the pool. In a public health crisis, boundaries of public policy must not be determined by the patentees. MPP will work much better if the patentees are compelled or induced to join the pool. International cooperation is important in this regard. Highlighting the virtues of voluntary measures and promoting MPP without adequate emphasis on the use of compulsory licensing and other TRIPS flexibilities, actually weakens the MPP. In the light of the experience of MPP, the basic objective of this paper is to analyze to what extent voluntary pool mechanisms can be relied upon to make COVID-19 medical products affordable and accessible. It is important to appreciate the achievements of MPP. But the constraints under which it operates, and its limitations must also be kept in mind.

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South Centre Quarterly Report, October-December 2018

South Centre Quarterly Report, 1 October to 31 December 2018

This report summarizes the programmatic activities of the South Centre during the period 1st October to 31 December 2018. It is intended to provide information, organized by Program and themes, about recent developments in the areas covered by the South Centre’s Work Program and publications made and meetings organized or co-organized by the Centre to examine particular issues or to provide analytical support for international negotiations taking place in various fora. It also informs about external conferences and other meetings where the Centre has participated.

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SC Project Launch, November 2018

Title:                       Breakfast Meeting for Ambassadors of the Group of 77 and China

                                Launch of Project: A Public Health Approach to Intellectual Property Rights

Date and Time:      9 November 2018, 9-10  AM

Venue:                    Intercontinental Hotel, Room Méditerranée – Benelux, First Floor

Organizers:           South Centre 

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