Support of the International Longevity Alliance for all initiatives for more open, fast and efficient research against the Covid-19 epidemic (and for better resilience of older people)

The International Longevity Alliance strongly welcomes and supports proposals to accelerate research concerning this disease strongly related to aging.

Among other actions, we support the three following initiatives:

The proposal of the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, to the WHO:

Costa Rica in the spirit of contributing to global actions to fight the pandemic, respectfully requests to the World Health Organization (WHO) to undertake an effort to pool rights to technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This pool, which will involve voluntary assignments, should include existing and future rights in patented inventions and designs, as well rights in regulatory test data, knowhow, cell lines, copyrights and blueprints for manufacturing diagnostic tests, devices, drugs, or vaccines. It should provide for free access or licensing on reasonable and affordable terms, in every member country.

Given the urgency of this matter, Costa Rica proposes that the WHO develop an initial concise memorandum of understanding on the intent to share rights in technologies funded by the public sector and other relevant actors, and reach out to WHO Member States, non-profit institutions, industry and others, to sign such an MoU.

The proposal of the co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

There have been very few positive stories about COVID-19, but one is the science. Three years ago, our foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and various governments launched the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations — or CEPI. The goal was to speed the process of testing vaccines and to fund new, faster ways of developing immunisations in the first place. If a novel virus were to start spreading around the world, we wanted to be ready. (…)

Another important consideration is the cost: If the private sector is willing to step up and manufacture this vaccine, for example, they shouldn’t have to lose money to do it. At the same time, any COVID-19 vaccine must be classified as a “global public good,” and remain affordable and accessible to all. (…°

Humanity, after all, isn’t just bound together by common values and social ties. We’re also connected biologically, by a microscopic network of germs that links the health of one person to the health of everyone else. In this pandemic we are all connected. Our response must be, too.

The joint initiative of the Foundation for the NIH, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, biopharmaceutical companies and other actors

To launch a public-private partnership to speed COVID-19 vaccine and treatment options.

The planned Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) partnership will develop a collaborative framework for prioritizing vaccine and drug candidates, streamlining clinical trials, coordinating regulatory processes and/or leveraging assets among all partners to rapidly respond to the COVID-19 and future pandemics. This is part of the whole-of-government, whole-of-America response the Administration has led to beat COVID-19.

The ILA already declared in February that it was calling

For maximum openness of medical data from patients with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, in order to facilitate medical research and the development of new therapies and treatment regimens.

COVID-19 is not the first serious coronavirus epidemic, and likely not the last pandemic in human history. Anti-epidemic measures alone are not sufficient to save the lives of older people who need therapy and prevention, and to fight against such epidemics. Additional efforts are required to develop new therapies and new anti-infectious and supportive medical approaches to improve the immune response.

It is time for a more open, united, powerful action for resilience of people and nations. Resilience against the coronavirus and resilience for longevity.