VIDEO: Why Costa Rica’s Proposal for the Creation of a Global Pooling Mechanism Deserves Serious Consideration

On March 23, Costa Rica submitted a proposal to the Director-General of the WHO for the creation of a global pooling mechanism in order to facilitate access to and use of intellectual property, trade-secret know how, regulatory data, cell lines, product blueprints, and other proprietary data for technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study critically evaluates Costa Rica’s proposal and endeavours to briefly answer the following questions: Why Costa Rica’s proposal deserves serious consideration? To what extent this proposal addresses some of the key concerns related to the COVID-19? To what extent this proposal is practically feasible? This study argues that if practically implemented, the proposed pooling mechanism will lead to reducing health inequities by improving affordable access to healthcare.