From:
SANTE CONSULT-C4
Sent:
vendredi 6 novembre 2020 18:53
To:
Cc:
SANTE CONSULT-C4
Subject:
Food Safety
Dear
,
Thank you for your letter of 13 July 2020 to the
General for Health and Food Safety, who asked me to reply to you directly.
In your note to refer to the work of World Health Organization (WHO) to establish a framework towards
ensuring global equitable access and allocation of COVID-19 health products, starting with vaccines, as
The European Commission is deeply concerned about the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and its
here in Europe and global y. The Commission has, therefore, taken a leading role in the Global
Coronavirus Response where so far nearly EUR 16 billion have been pledged for universal access to
tests, treatments and vaccines against coronavirus and for the global recovery.
The Commission also fully supports the ground-breaking and innovative cooperation under the Access to
COVID Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to
COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. The EU Health Commissioner, Ms Stel a Kyriakides, is our
representation in the recently established Facilitation Council, that wil advise and further promote the
activities of the ACT-A. We fully support the principles of equity, affordability, transparency and
transparent, inclusive and accountable governance you underlined in your letter.
In this regard, it is very important to ensure and preserve the necessary incentives to develop innovative
solutions and technologies that will be critical to overcome the ongoing pandemic. Intellectual property
plays a key role in this respect. To promote global access as well as a fair return on investments, the
Commission fully supports voluntary pooling and licensing of intellectual property related to COVID-19
diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. Furthermore, the Commission has published a Manifesto for EU
COVID-19 research to encourage recipients of EU funding to make research results accessible to al .
Recent Horizon 2020 COVID-19 calls have also included a temporary obligation to license results on a
non-exclusive basis and at fair and reasonable conditions.
I would also like to inform you that the European Commission has decided to participate in the COVAX
Facility for equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines everywhere, for everyone who needs them.
objectives in the context of the Coronavirus Global Response.
The availability of an effective and universally available vaccine against COVID-19 will surely mark the
turning point in overcoming this global crisis.
We need to keep the momentum and bring an end to COVID-19. Only by joint and global efforts we wil
succeed and I thank you again for your engagement and outreach.
Yours sincerely,
European Commission
Health and Food Safety Directorate General
Unit C.4 - International Relations
11, rue Eugène Ruppert L-2453 Luxembourg
http://ec.europa.eu