The decision of the US administration to support a patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines is disappointing. We are fully aligned with the goal to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are quickly and equitably shared around the world.
Read moreThis oped was originally published on International Business Times on 11 April 2021. Imagine if China had refused to share Covid-19’s genetic sequences with other countries. Vaccine development would have been delayed indefinitely. Monitoring the virus would have been next to impossible. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Chinese scientists shared the full SARS-CoV-2 sequence on Jan....
Read moreThis oped was published on the Financial Times on 25 April 2021 1998, 39 pharmaceutical companies sued Nelson Mandela’s South African government to stop legislation that allowed pharmacists to substitute generic HIV/Aids drugs for brand-name ones. It was one of the dumbest things the industry ever did. What started as a legal battle became a...
Read moreOn the first anniversary of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT Accelerator), high-level representatives – from pharma and biotech trade associations and vaccine manufacturers from both developed and developing countries – met to discuss the challenges of scaling-up vaccine production and ensuring vaccine equity. Present at the meeting were IFPMA Director General Thomas Cueni,...
Read moreWe thank the organizers, World Health Organization and Ministry of Health of Argentina for convening this meeting and for inviting representatives from the innovative biopharmaceutical industry to share our experience and perspectives on how we can work collectively toward improved access to medicines worldwide. It is with this mindset that we engaged in a constructive...
Read moreGeneva, 23 April 2021 – Today we welcome the one-year Anniversary of ACT Accelerator (ACT-A) – an unprecedented global partnership established to defeat a global health crisis. The force of ACT-A has been its flexible, solution-oriented and collaborative approach, with all players – governments, business, civil society, and global health organizations – having a seat...
Read moreOn the 1st anniversary of ACT-Accelerator, COVID-19 vaccine makers representing biotechnology firms, developing and developed country manufacturers renew their commitment to produce sufficient vaccines to meet world needs. Increased production output of COVID-19 vaccines is forecast and can be attributed to over 200 manufacturing deals coming online and greater efficiency of a complex process, however,...
Read moreThe press briefing will take stock of the contribution and difficulties of scaling up COVID-19 vaccines production, and the short and longer term challenges that need to be addressed.
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On April 12 and 13 the African Union and the African CDC organized Africa’s Vaccine Manufacturing for Health Security virtual conference, opened by HE Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission and chaired by HE Félix Antoine Tshilombo Tshisekedi, Chair of the African Union and President of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over...
Read moreOn 14 April 2021, IFPMA and a number of its member company experts attended the WTO event “COVID-19 and Vaccine Equity: What can the WTO Contribute”. The meeting was an opportunity to contribute to the WTO Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, expressed desire to find pragmatic outcomes to increase COVID-19 vaccine production. IFPMA and its member...
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