Founded and funded by the International AIDS Funding Agency (UNITAID) since 2010, the Medicine Patent Pool (MPP) aims to increase access and facilitate drug development for low and middle income countries through an innovative approach to voluntary licensing and patent breaking.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on the global community to voluntarily make available the knowledge, intellectual property and data needed to confront COVID-19. According to WHO, the priority is to stop the pandemic, interrupt the transmission of the new coronavirus and reverse the consequences of future global problems. For this, WHO advocates universal access to knowledge, intellectual property, data and other technologies in progress.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and UN Under-Secretary-General, Winnie Byanyima, wrote a hard-hitting article against the pharmaceutical industry’s monopoly. The authors acknowledge the need for an urgent vaccine to end the COVID-19 pandemic. According to them, the world is likely to need a permanent dose of the vaccine and intellectual property is one of the barriers that prevent this vaccine from being available to everyone.

The Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) expresses deep concern regarding President Jair Bolsonaro’s latest changes in the Ministry of Health and regarding hisactive support for a demonstration in favor of a military that was held on Sunday (April 19th) before the Army headquarters in Brasilia. ABIA joins the flood of critics against the event, remains vigilant and stands in defenseof democracy in Brazil.