Under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, pharmaceutical companies have a 20-year monopoly on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, and each government must negotiate with them on prices and quantities. Rich countries are first in line. Low-income countries must wait years while the pandemic rages, more infectious strains develop and millions die.
No one is safe until everyone is safe. Pharmaceutical companies have already made billions from vaccines which were largely developed with public funds. As global companies, they are also able to avoid paying taxes on these super profits.
Negotiations are now under way before a WTO General Council meeting on July 27 to change WTO rules to put public health before pharmaceutical profits. More than 100 nations have called on the WTO to temporarily waive monopoly rules on vaccines and treatments in order to ramp up global production and reduce costs for fair access for people in low-income countries.
But Australia is still standing in the way of this proposal!
Will you email Trade Minister Dan Tehan and ask him support the temporary waiver on vaccine patents before the next WTO general Council meeting on July 27?
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