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Global “SHARE” Program for COVID could provide global protection against pandemic and create American jobs

BIO puts Forward possible solution to impasse over IP

May 4, 2021
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Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), sent a letter to President Joe Biden yesterday suggesting the establishment of a COVID Global Strategy for Harnessing Access Reaching Everyone (SHARE) Program, to be implemented immediately.

The letter, which is chalked full of policy solutions, is a response to the “worsening COVID crises in India, Brazil and elsewhere.”

The Global SHARE Program would consist of three parts:

1) Ensuring sufficient global supply of vaccines;

2) Ensuring safe and expeditious global access to vaccines and therapeutics; and

3) Ongoing Efforts to strengthen and support healthcare systems in low-and middle-income countries in addressing COVID.

Dr. McMurry-Heath writes: ”In the past year, over 950 research and development projects to address COVID have been launched, 70% of them by small and medium sized companies. These efforts can only truly be successful if they result in patients around the world receiving safe, effective treatments and vaccines. Clearly further action is needed if we are to achieve true global social justice in addressing the COVID crisis.”

Read the letter and BIO’s detailed policy suggestions here.

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