Drop the patents - save lives

Today, Trade Secretary Liz Truss is holding a meeting between the trade ministers of the seven richest countries in the world ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall this summer.

Just Treatment, Global Justice Now and STOPAIDS outside the Department for International Trade.

The UK is blocking efforts by the Global South to waive patent monopolies on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. If agreed, the proposal on the table would allow many more countries to produce the vaccines and treatments needed to stop the pandemic - but the UK and other rich nations are choosing to put pharma company profits ahead of people’s health.  

So we’ve teamed up with Global Justice Now, STOPAIDs and others to protest outside the Department of Trade today, taking the message straight to the G7 trade ministers that to save lives, they must drop the patents.

Izzie, a Just Treatment patient leader who has family in India, explains why getting the UK and other rich nations to back the waiver proposal is so important:

“Two months ago I had my first dose of the vaccine, but it was bitter sweet. Although I was so excited, it breaks my heart that my family in India won't get the same sense of relief as me. 

I feel guilty that I got access first as many of my relatives are vulnerable and haven't been able to leave their flats for a whole year. It is disgusting and unfair because my life is not more valuable than theirs. I shouldn’t have had the vaccine before them. 

Now I want to see my family and friends in India - and the rest of the world - vaccinated as quickly as possible. Our lives in the West are not more valuable than theirs.”

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