G20 leaders must demonstrate real-time international cooperation and action to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
Multiple avenues must be taken to rapidly scale up global access to vaccines, treatments and tests, to save as many lives as possible
Throughout this year, MSF has addressed critical needs and experienced struggles in providing care for people facing COVID-19, in countries ranging from India, Lebanon and Yemen, to Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. To date, more than 4.5 million people have died of COVID-19 – the pandemic is still a daily life-or-death emergency for millions of people around the world.
While MSF acknowledges the various global initiatives launched and political commitments promised, we are disappointed that to date most have fallen short. We ask G20 health leaders to take stock of these missed commitments and make good on their promises.
Vaccine dose redistribution
Today global vaccine inequity is severe, and people are dying. We have witnessed the massive stockpiling of vaccine doses by some high-income countries as the rest of the world goes without. The world now faces a situation in which healthcare workers and high-risk populations in LMICs may not receive their first doses until after the majority of high-income countries are fully vaccinated.
The fastest way to save lives right now is for high-income countries – including the US, UK, Canada, and Germany – to immediately redistribute their excess vaccine doses to LMICs, via the COVAX Facility and other regional mechanisms. This must be done well before these doses expire. MSF urges G20 nations that have already vaccinated their vulnerable populations to stop purchasing additional doses and redistribute excess doses to support World Health Organization (WHO) targets of vaccinating at least 40% of all people globally by the end of 2021, and 70% by mid-2022.
Reaching vulnerable populations
Based on our experience in resource-limited settings, governments must prioritise funding not just for delivery but also strong health promotion and dialogue with communities to counter disinformation and fear resulting in vaccine hesitancy. We also urgently need to reach people ‘outside’ the system – refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), migrants, and those living in non-government-controlled areas.
Sharing vaccine technology
As the pandemic remains out of control and with the emergence of new and more transmissible variants, the need to dramatically increase the global production and supply of vaccines is obvious. Vaccine-manufacturing capacity must be boosted in LMICs by utilising all policy and legal measures, including through full transfer of mRNA vaccine technology and know-how by the pharmaceutical corporations Pfizer (US), BioNTech (Germany), and Moderna (US). To dramatically boost vaccine supply in LMICs, and attain independent sustainability, full transfer of such technology needs to happen transparently and be open to all competent alternative manufacturers. G20 countries, particularly Germany and the US which host BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna, should demand these companies share their mRNA vaccine technology and know-how with the WHO COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Technology Transfer Hub based in South Africa. G20 governments should also provide financial and technical support to the Hub.
Access to new treatments and tests
In addition to vaccines, the world urgently needs access to newer therapeutics and diagnostics to reduce the number of hospitalisations and deaths in this pandemic. The slower and lower rate of vaccination in LMICs increases the risk of transmission and variant spread, locally and globally. In the face of ongoing and new waves of the virus around the world, health systems are being pushed to their limits, highlighting the urgent need for diagnosis and treatment of people with COVID-19. Yet, new WHO-recommended COVID-19 therapeutics, such as tocilizumab (produced by Roche, based in Switzerland) and sarilumab (Regeneron, US), remain out of reach for people in LMICs due to high prices, limited supply, intellectual property (IP) barriers, and absence of transparent access plans.
MSF calls on G20 governments to take actions to overcome the market monopolies held by the pharmaceutical companies, and support biosimilars production to lower prices and ensure sustainable access to these important new therapeutics.
Stop blocking the Waiver on COVID-19 monopolies
Further, the G20 countries must support the ‘TRIPS Waiver’ proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO), which if adopted would provide all countries with an expeditious way to remove key IP barriers and legal risks around production and supply of COVID-19 medical tools, including vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, during the pandemic. Nearly a year after the Waiver was first proposed by India and South Africa, and now supported by over 100 nations, a small group of high-income countries continues to oppose the Waiver. These countries – particularly the European Union (EU), UK, Switzerland, and Norway – must stop blocking this lifesaving pandemic initiative supported by a majority of the world.
G20 health leaders should collectively acknowledge the limitations of relying on the pharmaceutical industry’s ‘good will’ to stem a global pandemic, and instead support the will of LMICs demanding self-reliance through the TRIPS Waiver.
It is high time to move on from high-level statements and show true solidarity through action. Groundbreaking medical innovations have been made in the last year – but instead of being ‘global public goods’ for all, they are a luxury for only some. As this deadly and unprecedented pandemic persists, the world’s health leaders must show political courage and break the status quo – and do their utmost to make all COVID-19 medical tools accessible for everyone.