Co-Chairs,
Thank you for the opportunity to make a brief intervention.
Both the sharing of pathogens and the sharing of the benefits, including products and knowledge, resulting from this should be a given. But as we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not the case.
Therefore, the PABS instrument will be a critical element to fulfil the equity objectives of the Pandemic Agreement.
During the PA negotiations, we have been closely following the discussions on technology transfer and access to intellectual property. These issues will surely come up again at the IGWG talks since the granting of non-exclusive licences for manufacturing and other forms of transfer of technology and know-how are identified in the Pandemic Agreement as part of the benefit sharing provisions.
While the Pandemic Agreement recognises the importance of technology transfer and know-how sharing, the provisions in Article 11 of the agreement lack firm commitments.
The IGWG process offers an opportunity to go further and put robust provisions for technology transfer and know-how sharing in place.
I wish you a fruitful meeting.
Ellen ‘t Hoen, LLM PhD, is a lawyer and public health advocate with over 30 years of experience working on pharmaceutical and intellectual property policies.