We are addressing all French and international democratic and trade union organisations, petitions (Stop Patents, European Citizens’ Initiative, CADTM International Appeal, etc.), forums and citizens, to prepare unitary mobilization initiatives around these dates. We submit to you this text that can serve as a basis for these mobilizations. We want to force the WTO and the G20 to listen to our demands, and we would like to propose that you form a delegation to request a meeting that we will send to the WHO, the WTO and the G20. We will communicate widely together on these initiatives, which can only be done on the basis of a mobilization that we must build!
Despite all the fine words of the masters of this world, the vaccine divide between rich and poor countries is widening in the face of Covid. By buying vaccines at a high price, even though they were made possible by billions of euros and dollars in public subsidies, the rich countries have managed to vaccinate around 80% of their population. They are even embarking on a third dose of the vaccine. Meanwhile, Africa has barely been able to vaccinate 3% of its population! This is the other side of patents, of this private appropriation of the common good that vaccines should be: high prices, a worldwide shortage, with the result that there is real vaccine segregation. And its attendant millions of deaths! With the risk tomorrow of an even more aggressive variant that threatens all vaccination efforts, if the largest part of humanity, the poorest, is forgotten because of patents and shortages.
Yet a solution exists. A remarkable study by the US consumer organization Public Citizen, in conjunction with researchers at Oxford University, shows that with the lifting of patents and technology transfers, the world can be vaccinated.
Using the same planning tools that the pharmaceutical industry uses to prepare its plans for industrial sites, the study convincingly demonstrates "how the global community could set up regional centers capable of producing eight billion doses of mRNA vaccine by May 2022. This would be enough to cover 80% of the population. The cost? 9.4 billion dollars for a Pfizer - Biontech type vaccine, for 5 facilities, 17 production lines and 1386 employees. A figure to be compared with the tens of billions of government subsidies received by the pharmaceutical trusts to vaccinate only the richest people, amass profits and place them in tax havens!
Governments refuse to attack the patents and profits of the laboratories, and the European Union is unfortunately at the forefront of this refusal. They say they prefer dose donations and free licenses. Dose donations? A total fiasco as the WHO points out that only 15% of the promised one billion doses have actually been delivered. Free licenses? Most often, Pfizer and Moderna refuse to do so in order to keep control of the technologies in Arn and a shortage that allows them to increase their prices even more!
So there is no other solution than to make the voice of the people heard and to demand, together with India, South Africa and a hundred NGOs, the lifting of patents!
The WTO TRIPS Council meets on 13 and 14 October in Geneva. The G20 meets in Rome on 30 and 31 October. Let’s seize these dates to raise the demand for the lifting of patents, for technology transfers, for universal, immediate and free vaccination, built with the populations, especially the most precarious, associated with massive investments in public health systems, and the promotion of barrier gestures.
To contact us, sign this call and prepare initiatives:
brevetsvaccinscovidrequisition gmail.com
22 September 2021
Collectif Brevets sur les vaccins anti covid, stop! Requisition. France
Members organisations
ACT-UP Paris ; ACT-UP Sud Ouest ; Agora des habitants de la Terre ; AIDES ; AITEC Association Internationale de Techniciens, Experts et Chercheurs ; APEIS Association pour l’emploi l’information et la solidarité ; Appel des appels ; Association Ban Asbestos France ; Association Henri Pézerat ; Association pour l’Autogestion ; Association Sciences Citoyennes ; ATTAC France ; CADAC coordination des associations pour le droit à l’avortement et la contraception ; CEDETIM Centre d’études et d’Initiatives de Solidarité internationale ; Cerises la coopérative ; CGT Sanofi ; CNT-SO ; Collectif antisanofric ; Collectif inter-blocs ; Collectif inter-urgences ; Collectif intersyndical cmpp86 ; Collectif la Santé n’est pas une marchandise ; Collectif Médicament Bien Commun ; Collectif Médicament-Santé d’Initiatives Capitalexit ; Collectif National des Psychologues UFMICT-CGT. ; Collec tif Notre Santé en Danger ; Comite de vigilance pour le maintien des services publics de proximité en Haute-saone ; Comite défense santé publique du Doubs ; Comite ivryen pour la santé et l’hopital public ; Convergence Nationale des Collectifs de Défense et de Développement des Services Publics ; Coordination nationale des comités de défense des hôpitaux et maternités de proximité ; Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières ; Féderation CGT de la santé et de l’action sociale ; Fédération SUD Santé Sociaux ; Fondation Copernic ; Le Printemps de la Psychiatrie ; Médicament Bien Commun ; Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples ( MRAP) ; Mutuelles de travailleurs du Vaucluse ; Observatoire de la transparence dans les politiques du médicament ; People’s Health movement France ; Réseau mondial du Comité pour l’Abolition des Dettes Illégitimes (CADTM) ; Résistance sociale ; SUD Chimie Solidaires ; SUD Recherche EPST ; Syndicat de la Médecine Générale ; Syndicat des Psychiatres des Hôpitaux ; Syndicat Sud Chimie Janssen VDR ; TRT-5 HCV; Union fédérale SUD Industrie ; Union Syndicale de la Psychiatrie ; Union Syndicale Solidaire