TY - JOUR
T1 - Pandemic preparedness and response
T2 - Beyond the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator
AU - Saxena, Abha
AU - Baker, Brook K.
AU - Banda, Amanda
AU - Herlitz, Anders
AU - Miller, Jennifer
AU - Karrar, Karrar
AU - Fleurbaey, Marc
AU - Chiwa, Esther
AU - Atuire, Caesar Alimisnya
AU - Hirose, Iwao
AU - Hassoun, Nicole
N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance provided for this publication through the University of Gothenburg. We would also like to thank the Binghamton University Philosophy Department for their support. Moreover, we deeply appreciate the feedback we received from Kaushik Basu, Larry Gostin, Pedro Villarreal, Steven Hoffman, Johnathan Wolff, and José Szapocznik as well as audiences and colleagues at Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative, the Pandemic Action Network, Rutgers Center for Population Bioethics, Cornell University, CRADLE/ Institute of Economic Growth (Dehli) Roundtable on Law and Economic Development, Bowling Green State University, Regis University, Oxford University, Merrimak College, and a series of virtual workshops organized in conjunction with the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, Center for Global Development, and IRG-GHJ ( https://www.irg-ghj.org/ ). Finally, we would like to thank Milan Patel, Diana Dedi, Julia Match, Annie Nguyen, and the Global Health Impact ( https://www.global-health-impact.org/ ) team for their organization and research assistance. Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2023/1/17
Y1 - 2023/1/17
N2 - Nationalism has trumped solidarity, resulting in unnecessary loss of life and inequitable access to vaccines and therapeutics. Existing intellectual property (IP) regimens, trade secrets and data rights, under which pharmaceutical firms operate, have also posed obstacles to increasing manufacturing capacity, and ensuring adequate supply, affordable pricing, and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health products in low-income and middle- income countries. We propose: (1) Implementing alternative incentive and funding mechanisms to develop new scientific innovations to address infectious diseases with pandemic potential; (2) Voluntary and involuntary initiatives to overcome IP barriers including pooling IP, sharing data and vesting licences for resulting products in a globally agreed entity; (3) Transparent and accountable collective procurement to enable equitable distribution; (4) Investments in regionally distributed research and development (R&D) capacity and manufacturing, basic health systems to expand equitable access to essential health technologies, and non-discriminatory national distribution; (5) Commitment to strengthen national (and regional) initiatives in the areas of health system development, health research, drug and vaccine manufacturing and regulatory oversight and (6) Good governance of the pandemic prevention, preparedness and response accord. It is important to articulate principles for deals that include reasonable access conditions and transparency in negotiations. We argue for an equitable, transparent, accountable new global agreement to provide rewards for R&D but only on the condition that pharmaceutical companies share the IP rights necessary to produce and distribute them globally. Moreover, if countries commit to collective procurement and fair pricing of resulting products, we argue that we can greatly improve our ability to prepare for and respond to pandemic threats.
AB - Nationalism has trumped solidarity, resulting in unnecessary loss of life and inequitable access to vaccines and therapeutics. Existing intellectual property (IP) regimens, trade secrets and data rights, under which pharmaceutical firms operate, have also posed obstacles to increasing manufacturing capacity, and ensuring adequate supply, affordable pricing, and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health products in low-income and middle- income countries. We propose: (1) Implementing alternative incentive and funding mechanisms to develop new scientific innovations to address infectious diseases with pandemic potential; (2) Voluntary and involuntary initiatives to overcome IP barriers including pooling IP, sharing data and vesting licences for resulting products in a globally agreed entity; (3) Transparent and accountable collective procurement to enable equitable distribution; (4) Investments in regionally distributed research and development (R&D) capacity and manufacturing, basic health systems to expand equitable access to essential health technologies, and non-discriminatory national distribution; (5) Commitment to strengthen national (and regional) initiatives in the areas of health system development, health research, drug and vaccine manufacturing and regulatory oversight and (6) Good governance of the pandemic prevention, preparedness and response accord. It is important to articulate principles for deals that include reasonable access conditions and transparency in negotiations. We argue for an equitable, transparent, accountable new global agreement to provide rewards for R&D but only on the condition that pharmaceutical companies share the IP rights necessary to produce and distribute them globally. Moreover, if countries commit to collective procurement and fair pricing of resulting products, we argue that we can greatly improve our ability to prepare for and respond to pandemic threats.
KW - Health policy
KW - Health systems
KW - Public Health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146968930&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85146968930&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010615
DO - https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010615
M3 - Review article
C2 - 36650015
SN - 2059-7908
VL - 8
JO - BMJ Global Health
JF - BMJ Global Health
IS - 1
M1 - 010615
ER -