Pharma Industry Should Remove Curbs On Int'l Vaccine Technology Transfers - Ramaphosa

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed the belief that the global pharmaceutical industry should remove barriers for direct transfers of COVID-19 vaccines' technologies to low- and middle-income countries

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2021) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed the belief that the global pharmaceutical industry should remove barriers for direct transfers of COVID-19 vaccines' technologies to low- and middle-income countries.

"We should say that vaccine nationalism seriously threatens the global recovery from the pandemic and is deepening inequality between countries. The COVID-19 vaccine is a public good and must be recognized as such ... We work on the initiative by the World Health Organization to establish a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub. We call on the pharmaceutical industry to directly transfer this technology free of intellectual property barriers to low- and middle-income countries through either the WHO Hub or the COVAX Facility," Ramaphosa said at an event to mark the one-year anniversary of the launch of the international COVID-19 ACT-Accelerator initiative.

COVAX is a component of the global ACT Accelerator facility whose aim is to bring together and make equitably accessible all global developments in the diagnostics, treatment and vaccines against COVID-19. The COVAX facility is responsible for the equitable access to vaccines both for countries that can afford it and those in need of assistance. COVAX aims to ship close to 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, in an unprecedented global effort to guarantee access to vaccines for all.