World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will attend the ceremony of establishing a multi-year partnership with Qatar at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 18, 2021, to ensure the health and safety of the 2022 FIFA Football World Cup and major sporting events. Safety. Fabrice Cofrini/Pool via Reuters

Reuters, Geneva, November 23-The World Health Organization said that under the first agreement aimed at increasing production, a global license for serological technology to detect COVID-19 antibodies will be provided free of charge to poor and middle-income countries. Tuesday.

It said in a statement that the four existing tests can check for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies after infection or vaccination, and can also provide information on the need to strengthen the prevention of the disease.

The non-exclusive license agreement with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the first test license signed by the WHO Pharmaceutical Patent Pool (MPP), which is a public research institution that provides the technology as a global public product.

The WHO said: "The purpose of this license is to promote the rapid manufacturing and commercialization of CSIC's COVID-19 serological test worldwide."

"The license is royalty-free for low- and middle-income countries and will remain valid until the last patent expires," it said.

It added that these tests are simple to use and are even suitable for rural environments with basic laboratory infrastructure.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the agreement. He hopes that the agreement will inspire other developers to share tools against COVID-19. Since the virus appeared in central China in December 2019, the virus has caused 540 Ten thousand people died.

Tedros said: "This is an open and transparent license, and we need to promote access during and after the pandemic."

"I urge the developers of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics to follow this example and reverse the pandemic and the destructive global inequality caused by this pandemic."

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomed the deal and pointed out that currently WHO has only one antibody test using the quantitative immunoassay (ELISA) produced by Roche Holdings (ROG.S), which can only be tested with this A Swiss-based pharmaceutical manufacturer uses its own equipment.

"In order to overcome the monopoly of large diagnostic companies such as Roche and promote the production and supply of reliable ELISA antibody tests in all countries, CSIC's open license to the WHO C-TAP (COVID-19 Technology Access Pool) is an important step forward. One step," the militant group said.

"However, one license from one technology owner is not enough to open up the entire platform so that developers in various countries can improve their testing of COVID-19 antibodies. Remove intellectual property barriers for all key technical components and promote technology, data, and proprietary The open sharing, collection and transfer of technology is very important to ensure and improve everyone’s chances of obtaining a diagnosis of COVID-19."

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