Ahead of the 2021 World Health Day, the European Left calls all European citizens to take action and sign the European Citizens’ Initiative, supporting the “Right to Cure – No profit on Pandemic” campaign. We need one million signature across the EU to make anti-pandemic vaccines and treatments a global public good, freely accessible to everyone.

The EL is committed to fighting for a healthcare system run in the interests of people, not big pharma. Effective vaccines against Covid-19 would never have been possible without massive public investment in research, both before and during the pandemic. But as of today, few pharmaceutical companies have the power to decide what, how and how many vaccines and treatments to produce.

We need a radical turnaround in the healthcare system. To ensure that vaccines are available to all and that the interests of pharmaceutical companies do not come before the health of people, the intellectual property rights must be lifted to increase production and save lives. We can’t let corporations decide who gets those vaccines and how much governments have to pay.

A collective threat requires a collective response, not private profits. Supporting the European Citizens’ Initiative is therefore key to:

– Ensure that intellectual property rights, including patents, do not hamper the accessibility or availability of Covid-19 vaccines or treatments;

– Ensure that EU legislation on data and market exclusivity does not limit the immediate effectiveness of compulsory licenses issued by the Member States;

– Introduce legal obligations for beneficiaries from EU funds to share Covid-19 health technology-related knowledge, intellectual property and/or data in technology or patent pool;

– Introduce legal obligations for beneficiaries from EU funds regarding transparency on public contributions, production costs, as well as accessibility and affordability clauses combined with non-exclusive licenses.