Solidarity Call to Action

Making the response to COVID-19 a public common good

Solidarity Call to Action

To realize equitable global access to COVID-19 health technologies through pooling of knowledge, intellectual property and data

The single most important priority of the global community is to stop the COVID-19 pandemic in its tracks; to halt its rapid transmission and reverse the trend of consequential global distress. We know that this goal is only achievable when everyone, everywhere can access the health technologies they need for COVID-19 detection, prevention, treatment and response. Now more than ever, international cooperation and solidarity are vital to restoring global health security, now and for the future. Toward this aim, we call to action key stakeholders and the global community to voluntarily pool knowledge, intellectual property and data necessary for COVID-19. Shared knowledge, intellectual property and data will leverage our collective efforts to advance scientific discovery, technology development and broad sharing of the benefits of scientific advancement and its applications based on the right to health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fallibility of traditional ways of working when it comes to equitable access to essential health technologies. This initiative sets out an alternative, in line with WHO’s efforts to promote global public health goods, based on equity, strong science, open collaboration and global solidarity.

As a complement to the WHO COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan and the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, we hereby call on key stakeholders and the global community to commit to undertaking the following actions which are urgently needed to advance the pooling of knowledge, intellectual property and data that will benefit all of humanity:

Governments and other research and development funders

• Take action to promote innovation, remove barriers, and facilitate open sharing of knowledge, intellectual property and data necessary for COVID-19 detection, prevention, treatment and response, including through national legal and policy measures, and international collaboration on regulatory practices, to ensure availability, affordability and assured-quality of the concerned products; 
• Promote that all COVID-19 publicly-funded and donor-funded research outcomes are affordable, available and accessible to all on a global scale through appropriate provisions in funding agreements, and include specific provisions regarding accessibility to and affordability of resulting COVID-19 related health products through global non-exclusive voluntary licensing, transparency and, when necessary, other commitments to expand access by sharing, for example, other intellectual property rights, know-how and data; 
• Encourage that all research outcomes are published under open licenses that allow access free of charge, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions, including through initiatives such as the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship; 
• Encourage open and collaborative approaches in pre-competitive drug discovery and work together with international organizations towards equitable distribution and access to products needed for COVID-19; 
• Ensure that research results are registered and published in line with WHO’s Joint statement on public disclosure of results from clinical trials;

Holders of knowledge, intellectual property or data to existing or new therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines

• Voluntarily license such rights on a non-exclusive and global basis to the Unitaid-established and supported Medicines Patent Pool and/or through other public health research and development mechanisms, consortia or initiatives that facilitate global and transparent access; and/or voluntary non-enforcement of intellectual property rights, as appropriate, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to facilitate the widescale production, distribution, sale and use of such health technologies throughout the world; 
• Facilitate equitable, affordable and timely access to their products for all countries; 
• Share voluntarily the relevant knowledge, intellectual property and data to enable widescale and worldwide production, distribution and use of such technologies and necessary raw materials through mechanisms such as the Technology Access Partnership TAP hosted by the UN Technology Bank or the Open COVID Pledge Initiative; 

Researchers

• Share relevant SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence information and data through publicly accessible databases such as the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), recognizing the need for fair and equitable access to health products that are developed using genetic sequence information; 

All stakeholders

• Place, in the WHO Global Observatory on Health Research and Development, information and analyses on COVID-19 research and development activities, information and analyses to build on existing data and reports from a wide range of data sources, and gather new information, where needed and feasible, with the aim of enabling decisions on priorities in research and development; 
• Place, in the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool or its implementing partner platforms, references to shared information and/or commitments to all relevant technologies, knowledge, intellectual property, and data on terms that facilitate their use in research, development and innovation and manufacturing and that would permit effective technology transfer and early access to key technologies for the detection, prevention, treatment and response of COVID-19; 
  

Patients and communities, inter-governmental, non-governmental and civil society organizations 

• Advocate for, facilitate and actively engage in the implementation of this Solidarity Call to Action. 
  

Please confirm your agreement to take up, implement and be accountable for this Solidarity Call to Action by sending a confirmatory email to CallToAction@who.int.

Signed by:

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica 

The following WHO Member States have informed WHO and/or the Government of Costa Rica that they are joining the Solidarity Call to Action:

Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, The Netherlands, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, Zimbabwe

Note

This Solidarity Call to Action follows from numerous international commitments, including: 

Global Sustainable Development Goal 3, target 3b: “Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all”; 

The WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPA-PHI) and the WHO Roadmap for access to medicines, vaccines and health products 2019-2023: comprehensive support for access to medicines, vaccines and other health products; 

The General Assembly of the United Nations Resolution on “International cooperation to ensure global access to medicines, vaccines and medical equipment to face COVID-19” (A/RES/74/274); 

The 73rd World Health Assembly Resolution on “COVID-19 response” (WHA73.1).