2022 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on access to medicines, vaccines and other health products

HRC 50th ses­sion
2022-07-07

Res­o­lu­tion A/HRC/RES/50/13

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Analysis of precedential value

This UN Human Rights Coun­cil (HRC) res­o­lu­tion was adopted with­out a vote in July 2022. The HRC is com­posed of elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 47 Mem­ber States; together, they are respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing inves­ti­ga­tions of and responses to human rights vio­la­tions.

Used as precedent

access to health products, pharmaceutical transparency

• “Reaf­firm­ing the impor­tance of improv­ing the trans­parency of mar­kets, costs and sup­ply chains for med­i­cines, vac­cines and other health prod­ucts across the whole value chain, and tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion res­o­lu­tion WHA72.8 of 28 May 2019, adopted by the World Health Assem­bly at its sev­enty-sec­ond ses­sion” (p. 3)

access to health products, publicly funded research

• “Rec­og­niz­ing also the need for States, in coop­er­a­tion with regional and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and civil soci­ety, includ­ing non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, phil­an­thropic foun­da­tions, aca­d­e­mic and research insti­tu­tions and the pri­vate sec­tor, involved at all stages of the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals value chain, includ­ing research and devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture, dis­tri­bu­tion and sup­ply of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal prod­ucts, to cre­ate favourable con­di­tions at the national, regional and inter­na­tional lev­els to ensure the full and equal enjoy­ment of the right of every­one to the high­est attain­able stan­dard of phys­i­cal and men­tal health” (p. 4)

access to health products, local and regional manufacturing

• “Seri­ously con­cerned also that the sup­ply of health prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies is depen­dent on man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties con­cen­trated in few coun­tries and that the lack of ade­quate infra­struc­ture and logis­tics exper­tise to store, dis­trib­ute and deliver diag­nos­tics, med­i­cines, vac­cines and other health prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies, par­tic­u­larly in devel­op­ing coun­tries, among other fac­tors, ham­pers efforts to achieve diag­no­sis, treat­ment and vac­ci­na­tion tar­gets for sev­eral dis­eases, at the right time, safely and effi­ciently, espe­cially in the con­text of health emer­gen­cies” (p. 4)

• “Deeply con­cerned about the loss of lives and liveli­hoods and the dis­rup­tion to economies and soci­eties caused by the COVID-19 pan­demic, and its neg­a­tive impact on the enjoy­ment of human rights around the world, par­tic­u­larly for women and girls, and rec­og­niz­ing that the COVID-19 pan­demic has high­lighted the crit­i­cal need to pre­vent and pre­pare for poten­tial dis­rup­tions of the sup­ply chain for essen­tial med­i­cines and other health tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing through the strength­en­ing of local pro­duc­tion, and there­fore wel­com­ing res­o­lu­tion WHA74.6 of 31 May 2021, adopted by the World Health Assem­bly at its sev­enty-fourth ses­sion, on strength­en­ing local pro­duc­tion of med­i­cines and other health tech­nolo­gies to improve access” (p. 5)

access to health products, local and regional manufacturing, technology transfer

• “Urges States and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, in order to ensure timely, equi­table and unhin­dered access for all per­sons to safe, afford­able, effec­tive and qual­ity med­i­cines, vac­cines, diag­nos­tics and ther­a­peu­tics, and other health prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies with a view to advanc­ing the real­iza­tion of the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals:

  (a) To pro­mote research and capac­ity-build­ing ini­tia­tives, and to enhance inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion on and access to sci­ence, inno­va­tion, tech­nolo­gies, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and knowl­edge-shar­ing, includ­ing by pool­ing ini­tia­tives, while appre­ci­at­ing the sub­stan­tive efforts many States have already made to this end;

  (b) To take all mea­sures nec­es­sary to strengthen regional and local pro­duc­tion, by pro­mot­ing inno­v­a­tive modal­i­ties of global part­ner­ships and tech­nol­ogy trans­fers, on mutu­ally agreed terms, and to facil­i­tate trade in med­i­cines, vac­cines and other health prod­ucts;

  (c) To share data and results in accor­dance with inter­na­tion­ally agreed prin­ci­ples, includ­ing shar­ing of pathogens, sam­ples and genetic sequenc­ing data, and ensure the fair and equi­table shar­ing of ben­e­fits that arise from their uti­liza­tion, in accor­dance with inter­na­tional access and ben­e­fit-shar­ing instru­ments;

  (d) To pro­mote the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy and know-how on mutu­ally agreed terms, and to encour­age research, inno­va­tion and com­mit­ment, where pos­si­ble, to vol­un­tary licens­ing in all agree­ments in which pub­lic fund­ing has been invested in research and devel­op­ment;

  (e) To assist in efforts to build capac­ity through train­ing and finan­cial sup­port for devel­op­ing coun­tries to pro­duce health tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing mRNA vac­cine tech­nol­ogy;

  (f) To explore ways to pro­mote equi­table access and fair dis­tri­bu­tion of health prod­ucts, includ­ing the pos­si­ble estab­lish­ment of a global end-to-end plat­form;

  (g) To advance the health and care work­force invest­ment agenda, with a spe­cial focus on the pri­mary health-care work­force and employ­ment of women at all lev­els;

  (h) To take mea­sures to ensure acces­si­ble and afford­able access to health-care sys­tems for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties;” (p. 7)

access to health products, alternative r&d models

• “Rec­og­niz­ing the need to appro­pri­ately address chal­lenges, gaps, mar­ket fail­ures and oppor­tu­ni­ties regard­ing the research and devel­op­ment of health tech­nolo­gies, avail­abil­ity and afford­abil­ity to treat, inter alia, rare and neglected dis­eases, as well as infec­tious dis­eases, and to respond to the growth of emerg­ing chal­lenges, such as antimi­cro­bial resis­tance and pathogens with pan­demic poten­tial, among oth­ers, with a view to ade­quately address­ing pub­lic health needs and pro­tect­ing, respect­ing and ful­fill­ing human rights, and tak­ing into account the neces­sity to pro­mote frame­works that meet pub­lic health needs, while ade­quately reward­ing inno­va­tion” (p. 5)

• “Reit­er­ates the call upon States to con­tinue to col­lab­o­rate, as appro­pri­ate, on mod­els and approaches that sup­port the delink­age of the cost of new research and devel­op­ment from the prices of med­i­cines, vac­cines and diag­nos­tics for dis­eases that pre­dom­i­nantly affect devel­op­ing coun­tries, includ­ing emerg­ing and neglected trop­i­cal dis­eases, so as to ensure their sus­tained acces­si­bil­ity, afford­abil­ity and avail­abil­ity and to ensure access to treat­ment for all those in need” (p. 7)

• “Urges all States, United Nations agen­cies, funds and pro­grammes, and rel­e­vant inter­gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, espe­cially the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, within their respec­tive man­dates, and encour­ages non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions and rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, includ­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies, to pro­mote inno­v­a­tive research and devel­op­ment to address health needs in devel­op­ing coun­tries, includ­ing access to safe, effec­tive, qual­ity and afford­able med­i­cines and vac­cines, in par­tic­u­lar with regard to dis­eases dis­pro­por­tion­ately affect­ing devel­op­ing coun­tries, and the chal­lenges aris­ing from the grow­ing bur­den of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, while tak­ing into account the Global Strat­egy and Plan of Action on Pub­lic Health, Inno­va­tion and Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty of the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion” (p. 9)

access to health products, technology transfer

• “Rec­og­nizes the inno­v­a­tive fund­ing mech­a­nisms and arrange­ments that con­trib­ute to the avail­abil­ity of vac­cines and med­i­cines in devel­op­ing coun­tries, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuber­cu­lo­sis and Malaria, the Gavi Alliance, Uni­taid, the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accel­er­a­tor ini­tia­tive and the COVID-19 Tech­nol­ogy Access Pool (C-TAP), espe­cially for those liv­ing in poverty, chil­dren and other per­sons in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions, and calls upon all States, United Nations agen­cies, funds and pro­grammes, in par­tic­u­lar the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, and rel­e­vant inter­gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, within their respec­tive man­dates, and encour­ages rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, includ­ing com­pa­nies involved in the research and devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture, import­ing, dis­tri­bu­tion and sup­ply of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, while safe­guard­ing pub­lic health from undue influ­ence by any form of real, per­ceived or poten­tial con­flict of inter­est, to fur­ther col­lab­o­rate to enable equi­table access to qual­ity, safe and effec­tive med­i­cines and vac­cines that are afford­able to all, includ­ing those liv­ing in poverty, chil­dren and other per­sons in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions” (p. 8)