The AIDS Healthcare Foundation  is disappointed that the U.S. Trade Representative has slowed down international negotiations aimed at expanding access to COVID-19 diagnostics and treatments by lifting patent protection in developing countries.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was supposed to make a decision on the patent exemption until December 17, but now the USTR says the US government will not support the initiative until it has time to study its impact. The announcement comes after the US backed a similar proposal on COVID-19 vaccine know-how in June.

“Unlike vaccines, which require custom-made proteins and grow in a lab, tests and treatments can be more easily mimicked if generic drug manufacturers have the blueprint – which is why Big Pharma is using its considerable lobbying power to push the WTO patent exemption this time around," said Michael Weinstein, the president of AHF. “During pandemics and international outbreaks, global health security must unequivocally take precedence over corporate profits. We urge the USTR to expedite the review of the WTO proposal and endorse it in line with the previous vaccine decision – with the resurgence of COVID-19, millions of lives depend on this."

AHF has strongly supported the emergency lifting of patents on COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapy through the Vaccinate Our World (VOW) campaign since India and South Africa first introduced the idea to the World Trade Organization in 2020. Read here more about the VOW campaign.

Over de AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global non-profit organization that provides advanced medicine and advocacy to more than 1.6 million people in 45 countries around the world in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Asia/Pacific and Europe . We are currently the largest non-profit provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the world. For more information about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org , find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth , and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

This announcement is official in its original source language. Translations are only intended as a reading aid and must be compared with the text in the source language, which is the only one legally valid.

Contacts
US MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ged Kenslea , Senior Director, Communications, AHF
+1 323 308 1833 work, +1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org

Denys Nazarov , Director Global Policy & Communications, AHF
+1 323.308.1829
denys .nazarov@aidshealth.org

 

Source:businesswire.com

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