Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado joined the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, on May 29 to officially launch the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool known as C-TAP. The initiative brings together voluntary contributions from governments, companies and civil society in the field of COVID-19 patents and technologies to universalize access and combat the pandemic. 

Similarly, the WHO also published a Call to action, grouping together the requests made by the international community to a range of different actors to give this initiative their support. Those interested can join the project by sending an email to [email protected].

The main features of the Technology Access Pool are centered on the public disclosure of genetic data sequencing, as well as transparency surrounding the publication of clinical trial results. Governments and other actors in the pharmaceutical sector are being encouraged to ensure the equitable distribution, affordability and publication of trial data. Lastly, C-TAP proposes licensing any diagnosis, treatment and vaccine to the UN Drug Patent Fund.

The mechanism is complemented by the program “Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator” which was launched in April. The initiative already has the support of over 30 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.