WHO Working to Accelerate COVID-19 Serological Antibody Technology Globally
Daily Rendezvous A new, open, transparent sublicence agreement between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) on behalf of C-TAP, and South African pharmaceutical company Biotech Africa will accelerate the manufacture and sale of a COVID-19 serological antibody technology around the world. The World Health Organization welcomes the sublicence agreement, the first of its kind to be signed under the auspices of the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative. C-TAP was set up in 2020 to facilitate the timely, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products. The new agreement builds on a licensing agreement announced by WHO and MPP last year with Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC). The non-exclusive sublicence allows Biotech to manufacture and commercialize CSIC’s COVID-19 serological test worldwide. “The most effective way to get – and keep – ahead of COVID-19 is to keep testing,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General....