The Lesson From Covid To Better Face The Next Pandemic. Summit Meeting Between WHO, WIPO And WTO For Increased Scientific, Political And Industrial Cooperation Quotidiano Sanità

This was discussed in a tripartite meeting between the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO): “There is no certainty as to when the next pandemic will hit us, but there is absolute certainty that it will happen again We can and must do better next time, for ourselves and for our children.”

20 DEC –

Last December 16th, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlighted how the world has been able to move quickly, driven by an emergency situation like that caused by created the Covid pandemic.

A lesson, that of Covid, which the three organizations now want to use for the future because, as the Director-General of WIPO pointed out, Darren Tang“There is no certainty when the next pandemic will hit us, but there is absolute certainty that it will happen again. We can and must do better next time, for ourselves and for our children.”

Therefore, Tang hopes that the tripartite symposium will “bring us together and strengthen our common will to work across all agencies with our partners in Member States, industry and civil society to create a better, healthier and more sustainable world.”

Because everyone agrees: “Collaboration is a key factor in promoting innovation and equitable and timely access to health products – for COVID-19 and in preparation for future pandemics”.

“Today’s symposium is about an open, inclusive, and empirically grounded dialogue about how global trade and intellectual property rules have contributed to what went right—and what—in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic Not. It will help lay the foundations for better responses to future global health crises,” stressed the Director-General of the WTO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Because, as the WHO Director-General pointed out Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “Despite all the progress we’ve made over the past three years, serious global inequalities are still hampering the response,” and with that in mind, “local production of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics is essential to ending this pandemic and preparedness.” to strengthen for future emergencies”.

He was entrusted with the opening speech of the trilateral summit Salim Abdool KarimDirector of the Center for AIDS Research Program in South Africa and Professor of Global Health at Columbia University.

Karim looked at the developments during the pandemic from a scientific perspective and discussed possible courses of action in relation to preparing for and responding to a pandemic. He noted that while we have achieved widespread immunity to vaccination and natural infections that has reduced hospitalizations and serious illness, the virus continues to spread, creating an ever-present risk of unpredictable new variants.

Then two panels during the symposium, one moderated Anabel GonzalesDeputy Director-General of the WTO, who discussed the key global challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic with speakers from the South Centre, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gilead Sciences, the International Association of Generics and Biosimilar Medicines and Doctors Without Borders (MSF ) and the others, moderated by Hanan Hassan O BalkyWHO Deputy Director-General, Division of Access to Medicines and Health Products, who spoke on how to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 public health crisis and build resilience against future pandemics.

Speakers included representatives from the European Commission’s Emergency Preparedness and Response and Public Health Agency, the Argentine Ministry of Health, the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the WHO Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (WHO INB), the Network of Vaccine Manufacturers from Developing Countries (DCVMN) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Oxfam International.

Technology and know-how sharing, geographic diversification of production, supply chain security, smooth regulatory approval processes, pooling of procurement and financing, and a balanced intellectual property and innovation regime that helps ensure equal access to health technologies for all as key elements to be better prepared for future pandemics.