Authored by: Chidi Oguamanam
This Open AIR Working Paper 28 explores innovations in the delivery of universal care to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. In this exploration, issues related to governance and ownership of global vs. local innovation, including but not limited to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), are considered. In addition, this paper covers the roles of intellectual property (IP), licensing, and regulatory bodies in shaping access to, and influencing distribution of, health benefits and outcomes. A core insight presented in this paper is that successfully achieving the goals of health and well-being is inseparable from other dimensions of sustainable development—particularly climate action but also access to clean water, to education, and to social welfare support. This paper also points to the fact that the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic are not about vaccines only. The lessons are also about ancillary medical innovations. Future pandemics are anticipated to each have their own unique character, thus requiring response agility and adaptation—both technological and regulatory—beyond medicines and therapeutics. Moreover, data will drive future pandemic and public health responses, making appropriate data governance and regulation a priority issue.
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