Together with dozens of other European organisations, we are launching a European citizens’ initiative today. Sign the initiative and help ensure that all COVID-19 medicines and vaccines become accessible to everyone, everywhere in the world.
On 30 November, a broad coalition of healthcare workers’ unions, NGOs, campaign groups, student organisations and health experts launched a European citizens’ initiative. Their aim is to persuade the European Commission to put in place all necessary measures to ensure that intellectual property rights, such as patents, do not restrict access to COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.
A European Citizens’ Initiative allows European citizens to put forward legislative proposals if they collect one million signatures within a year. This legally binding initiative adds a new voice to the concerns expressed by civil society groups, public health experts and world leaders, who fear that new vaccines and treatments will only be available to a small proportion of the population due to financial and logistical barriers.
Pharmaceutical companies should be required to share the results of their research with other institutions in order to speed up the production of doses worldwide and significantly reduce their cost.
The organisers state that pharmaceutical companies should be required to share the results of their research with other institutions in order to speed up the production of doses worldwide and significantly reduce their cost, as proposed by India and South Africa to the World Trade Organisation. They are also calling for the negotiations to be conducted with full transparency.
«It is misleading for pharmaceutical companies to claim that they are offering the vaccine at a low price, or for governments to say that it will be free for citizens,» says Anne Delespaul, spokesperson for the initiative and a Belgian doctor, «as if we weren’t paying for it all. However, research and development have been largely funded by the European Union using public money. Yet we have no public oversight of the actual price, efficacy or production costs. As a result, citizens, taxpayers, social security and health systems are paying twice: once for development through public funding and a second time for the profits of the big pharmaceutical companies.”.
»There is no reason why, in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis, companies should be contributing to shareholders’ profits. Our health services are already overburdened.’.
The launch date, 30 November, is no coincidence. Anne Delespaul said: «We are on the eve of World AIDS Day, when we show our support for people living with and affected by HIV. Millions of people have died because they could not afford treatment and protection. After a battle lasting several decades, pharmaceutical companies were forced to waive their patents. But the world simply cannot afford to wait that long.».
Further information: https://noprofitonpandemic.eu/
