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TWN
Info Service on Health Issues (Apr26/06) WHO: MSF calls on EU not to decouple access from benefit sharing in PABS System Geneva, 29 April (TWN) – The medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called upon the European Union (EU) and its Member States not to decouple access to pathogens and related data from the sharing of benefits emerging from the research and development enabled by such access. MSF made this call though a letter signed by its International Medical Secretary, Dr Maria Guevara. The letter calls on the EU and its Member States “to reject any outcome that separates pathogen access from binding benefit sharing, and to insist instead on a PABS System that grounds access in clear, contractual and enforceable obligations. This would enable the EU to meaningfully uphold its commitments to equity and solidarity in global health”. The letter was sent prior to the resumption of negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) System under the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Pandemic Agreement. The resumed negotiations are taking place at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on 27 April–1 May in hybrid mode. The call to reject the decoupling of access from benefit sharing is aimed at the EU’s position against signing of legally binding contracts containing benefit-sharing obligations as a precondition to access pathogen samples or related data. The EU insists that recipients of such samples and data need to sign benefit-sharing contracts only after developing products such as vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTDs), not at the time of access. According to developing countries, the EU approach not only violates the access and benefit-sharing (ABS) norms and standards set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol, but also creates uncertainty on benefit sharing. After VTDs have been developed, bargaining power shifts towards the pharmaceutical companies, which may be able to avoid any legal obligation on benefit sharing. Therefore the MSF letter calls for “ensuring that access to pathogens and data is firmly and concretely based on enforceable benefit-sharing commitments”. The letter describes the experience during the Ebola crisis as “emblematic” of the “injustice“ wrought by lack of benefit sharing. “During the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, affected communities and healthcare workers on the frontlines provided samples and data that enabled the development of candidate treatments at an unprecedented speed. Yet when new waves of Ebola struck in subsequent years, people in affected countries continued to struggle to access treatments at the scale and timeliness required, with stocks and supply decisions driven largely by national security interests or manufacturers’ commercial considerations. There were no benefit-sharing obligations on researchers and pharmaceutical corporations using clinical Ebola samples to guarantee fair and equitable access to resulting treatments for people and countries, based on health needs.” According to the letter, “Any model that allows developers to draw on multilateral pathogen access without legally binding conditions will entrench the very inequities the Pandemic Agreement is meant to address.” The letter is addressed to the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union and to EU Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Olivér Várhelyi.
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