India seeks equitable access to medicines, diagnostic tools at United Nations

India has now raised its voice at the United Nations seeking equitable access to medicines, diagnostic tools and technologies, even as it continues its campaign at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) seeking exemption for the Covid-19 drugs and vaccines from patent protections.

“Equitable access to affordable medicines, diagnostic tools and technologies remain a concern. We must address all barriers against access to medicines and new technologies, including through the use of flexibilities provided in WTO TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement and the Doha Declaration,” Prateek Mathur, the counsellor at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York, said, participating at a discussion on Global Health and Foreign Policy in the General Assembly of the international organization.

India of late joined South Africa and submitted a proposal at the WTO, arguing for a temporary waiver on the intellectual property rules for the Covid-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

Mathur presented India’s national statement at the conclave at the General Assembly.

“We need to capitalize on existing programs such as the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator or ACTA, and COVAX facility to ensure affordable and equitable global access to diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines while strengthening health systems. Also, we need to come up with long term strategies and roadmaps to put in place a system to deal with the future pandemics,” he said.

He said that the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted systemic weaknesses in health systems and vulnerabilities in the capacity to prevent and respond to pandemic threats.