Dr Isabelle Defourny, MSF director of operations This opinion piece was first published in English in Al Jazeera and in French by Le Monde. Today we can say that we are entering into a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of the countries that have been worst affected by the virus – such as the United Kingdom – having vaccinated enough … Read more
Geneva, Switzerland — Ahead of the next round of talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to discuss a proposal by South Africa and India to waive monopolies on COVID-19 medical tools during the pandemic, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on the wealthy countries opposing the proposal not to block it and ruin … Read more
Rebutting pharma’s rejection of a global COVID-19 IP waiver By Felipe Carvalho, Yuanqiong Hu, Leena Menghaney In response to the COVID-19 “TRIPS waiver” proposal submitted by South Africa and India for a temporary waiver from certain pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) obligations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Thomas Cueni, the director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical … Read more
Over 100 countries support the landmark proposal Geneva —Ahead of a critical meeting at the World Trade Organization (WTO) tomorrow — and against the backdrop of COVID-19 cases surging globally — the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) urged all countries to act in solidarity and build consensus around the … Read more
Geneva – As the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) starts meeting today and later this month to discuss emergency use authorisation of both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidates, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warns that any eventual COVID-19 vaccine approval won’t be enough to solve the global pandemic unless corporations take urgent … Read more
Terms of a deal disclosed show that we cannot rely on pharma’s goodwill to do the right thing, even in a pandemic. Geneva, 11 November 2020 – After the worrying terms of a deal struck between pharmaceutical corporation AstraZeneca and Brazilian public research body Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) were disclosed recently, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans … Read more
5 reasons a new proposal by India and South Africa could be a gamechanger in the COVID-19 response. And why ALL governments should support it. On October 2, 2020, India and South Africa submitted a landmark proposal to the World Trade Organization. The ground-breaking move proposes to ease rules that impose intellectual property (IP) barriers that restrict … Read more
We’re in a time of unprecedented mobilisation to tackle COVID-19. We’re in a time of unprecedented mobilisation to tackle COVID-19. Governments and philanthropies have contributed billions to the research and development of COVID-19 vaccines, while Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has recently launched a new fund – the COVAX Facility – to make advance purchases of COVID-19 vaccines. … Read more