LETTER | Tackle Covid-19 by keeping trade free and supporting innovation

LETTER | As member states of the World Health Organization gather today in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, a global coalition of 31 think tanks calls on governments to commit to open trade, collaboration and innovation in the fight against Covid-19.

The united declaration issued today calls for a range of measures to safeguard supplies of essential medical goods and support innovation for future Covid-19 treatments and cures.

Import tariffs are applied by many countries on medical supplies and personal protective equipment, driving up prices and reducing availability. These should be abolished permanently.

Governments should also commit to avoiding export bans, which are exacerbating global shortages of essential medical goods by disrupting global manufacturing supply chains. Customs red tape should be reviewed to keep goods crossing borders as quickly as possible, the declaration urges.

Innovation is crucial to finding a long-term solution to a newly identified disease like Covid-19. That includes the invention of new therapeutics and vaccines, but also their mass manufacture and rapid distribution throughout the world.

The think tanks call on governments to support needed innovation by facilitating the cross-border flow of epidemiological and clinical data related to Covid-19.

They should also avoid pre-emptively removing intellectual property rights from any new vaccines or treatments that emerge. The world needs more companies to join the quest for new treatments and vaccines, not policies that send a strong signal to stay away. Intellectual property rights are vital to support coordinated mass manufacturing scale-up and global distribution.

“We are concerned that many countries are looking to the failed ideas of the past to address the crisis. Barriers are being erected that are deepening shortages of medical supplies, undermining innovation and hampering efforts to beat the disease,” Galen Centre for Health & Social Policy chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib said.

“Now is not the time for countries to look inwards,” Azrul said. “The crisis will only be resolved and economies will only recover if countries are allowed to trade and collaborate freely with one another.”

GALEN CENTRE FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY is an independent public policy research and advocacy organisation based in Malaysia that is dedicated to discussing health and social issues through the lens of public policy. The full declaration of the 31 global think tanks can be seen at the Galen Centre website.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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