Vaccines, Medicines and COVID-19: How Can WHO Be Given a Stronger Voice?

by Germïn Velïsquez

Overview

This open access book is a collection of research papers on COVID-19 by Germán Velásquez from 2020 and early 2021 that help to answer the question: How can an agency like the World Health Organization (WHO) be given a stronger voice to exercise authority and leadership? 
The considerable health, economic and social challenges that the world faced at the beginning of 2020 with COVID-19 continued and worsened in many parts of the world in the second-half of 2020 and into 2021. Many of these countries and nations wanted to explore COVID-19 on their own, sometimes without listening to the main international health bodies such as WHO, an agency of the United Nations system with long-standing experience and vast knowledge at the global level and of which all countries in the world are members. 
In this single volume, the chapters present the progress of thinking and debate — particularly in relation to drugs and vaccines — that wouldenable a response to the COVID-19 pandemic or to subsequent crises that may arise. Among the topics covered:

• COVID-19 Vaccines: Between Ethics, Health and Economics
• Medicines and Intellectual Property: 10 Years of the WHO Global Strategy
  
• Re-thinking Global and Local Manufacturing of Medical Products After COVID-19
  
• Rethinking R&D for Pharmaceutical Products After the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 Shock
  
• Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines and Vaccines
  
• The World Health Organization Reforms in the Time of COVID-19
  

Vaccines, Medicines and COVID-19: How Can WHO Be Given a Stronger Voice? is essential reading for negotiators from the 194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO); World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) staff participating in these negotiations; academics and students of public health, medicine, health sciences, law, sociology and political science; and intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations that follow the issue of access to treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030891251
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	01/01/2022
Series:	SpringerBriefs in Public Health
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	418 KB

About the Author

Germán Velásquez is, since 2010, the Special Adviser for Policy and Health of the South Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, which is an intergovernmental think tank of and for developing countries.  

Until May 2010, he was Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, at the Director-General’s Office, in Geneva. He is a pioneer in the new area on health, intellectual property and access to medicines, and he represented WHO at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) from 2001 to 2010.
Germán Velásquez graduated from Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia, with a degree in Philosophy and Humanities that was further complemented by a Master’s in Economics and a PhD in Health Economics from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. In 2010, he received a PhD Honoris Causa on Public Health from the University of Caldas, Colombia. In October 2015, he received a Honoris Causa Doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.
Germán Velásquez is author or co-author of numerous publications on subjects such as health economics and medicines, health insurance schemes, globalisation, international trade agreements, intellectual property and access to medicines.  

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: COVID-19 Vaccines: Between Ethics, Health and Economics.- Chapter 2: Medicines and Intellectual Property: 10 Years of the WHO Global Strategy.- Chapter 3: Re-thinking Global and Local Manufacturing of Medical Products After COVID-19.- Chapter 4: Rethinking R&D for Pharmaceutical Products After the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 Shock.- Chapter 5: Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines and Vaccines.- Chapter 6: The World Health Organization Reforms in the Time of COVID-19.- Epilogue.