More than 30 countries and international partners/institutions have rallied behind the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), a new initiative from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Costa Rica designed to make scientific tools to fight COVID-19 universally available.
The show of unity followed news last week that the United States would officially end its relationship with the WHO. The international community stepped up to support the use of science in the fight against COVID-19. The C-TAP, first proposed in March by President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica, will be voluntary and provide knowledge, data, and intellectual property to any interested.
“Vaccines, tests, diagnostics, treatments, and other key tools in the coronavirus response must be made universally available as global public goods,” Alvarado said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said community and science are crucial to overcoming the virus and pandemic.
“Global solidarity and collaboration are essential to overcoming COVID-19,” Tedros said. “Based on strong science and open collaboration, this information-sharing platform will help provide equitable access to life-saving technologies around the world.”
The aspiration behind the program is that by sharing freely, partners can accelerate the discovery of vaccines, medicines, and other technologies, as well as fast-track product development. Specifically, it calls for public disclosure of gene sequences and data, transparency in the publication of clinical trial results, promotion of open innovation models and technology transfer that boost local manufacturing and supply capacity, the addition of clauses in funding agreements with pharmaceutical companies and innovators to guarantee equitable distribution, affordability, and publication of trial data, and the licensing of any potential treatment, diagnostic, vaccine or other health technology to the Medicines Patent Pool, a public health body dedicated to increasing access to and development of medicines for middle and low-income countries.
WHO, Costa Rica, and their co-sponsors have also put out a call to action for other relevant stakeholders to join and support the initiative.