COSTA RICA

Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado attended the Legislative Assembly on May 4 to deliver his annual speech on the state of the country. The president said that Costa Rica has “an ethical imperative” to spearhead the creation of an international patent repository to tackle COVID-19. Alvarado’s administration is working on a proposal on the matter, as yet not ready, which they intend to present to the May 17-21 WHO World Assembly scheduled. This initiative could be complemented by a similar proposal driven by the European Union. President Alvarado also announced that Costa Rica is to produce its own COVID-19 testing in the coming weeks.

Concerning Costa Rica’s proposal to the WHO, the NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) published an open letter, presenting the endorsement of 31 global institutions of Costa Rica’s initiative. Signatory institutions include the LAC-GLOBAL Alliance for Access to Medicines, the American Medical Student Association and Health Action International. This document is also backed by scientists and doctors specializing in the area.

Finally, in late April, the WHO launched the “Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator” program, which is partially based on Costa Rica’s proposal and reflects the organization’s commitment to ensuring equitable access to innovative tools to combat the pandemic. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) and the International Association for Generic and Biosimilar Drugs (IGBA) are some of the entities backing the initiative.