Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 30th Aug. World health agency head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday announced an expanded partnership to improve access to COVID-19 technology, knowledge and clinical data, stressing the fight against the virus must continue.
The partnership, called the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), was launched in 2020, to facilitate timely, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products through public health oriented, transparent and non-exclusive licensing agreements.
Mr. Tedros said “COVID-19 is here to stay, and the world will continue to need tools to prevent it, test for it and treat it,” .
“Through C-TAP, WHO and our partners are committed to making those tools accessible to everyone, everywhere. I am grateful to the leadership shown by those license holders who have contributed technology.
WHO noted as of 16 August there have been 769,806,130 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, including 6,955,497 deaths, while 13.5 billion vaccine doses administered.
Three institutions joined C-TAP include private vaccine manufacturer Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp, the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Chile.
Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp is offering its patent for a COVID-19 vaccine that has seen more than three million doses administered across seven countries, WHO said.
Spanish National Research Council is sharing a license for a COVID-19 vaccine prototype, and the University of Chile, technology for quantification of neutralizing antibodies.
WHO stressed that the addition of the three new licenses provides an important boost to the overall effort in the fight against COVID-19.
The agency added that the new licenses are global, transparent and non-exclusive to all manufacturers.
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