Covid-19 roundup: WHO looks to boost pro­duc­tion of an­ti­body tests in low­er-in­come coun­tries; US gov­ern­ment fights to up­hold work­place vac­cine man­date

In an ef­fort to com­bat ris­ing Covid-19 cas­es world­wide, the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion has struck a deal to li­cense sero­log­i­cal tech­nol­o­gy for an­ti­body test­ing and pro­vide it roy­al­ty-free to low- and mid­dle-in­come coun­tries in the hopes of boost­ing pro­duc­tion.

The WHO’s Covid-19 Tech­nol­o­gy Ac­cess Pool (C-TAP) and the Med­i­cines Patent Pool (MPP) fi­nal­ized the deal with the Span­ish Na­tion­al Re­search Coun­cil (CSIC), a pub­lic re­search in­sti­tute, on Tues­day. It’s the first test li­cense signed by the MPP, a Unit­ed Na­tions-backed pub­lic health or­ga­ni­za­tion, and in­clud­ed in the WHO pool, ac­cord­ing to the or­ga­ni­za­tions. It cov­ers all re­lat­ed patents and bi­o­log­i­cal ma­te­r­i­al nec­es­sary for man­u­fac­tur­ing the tests, and CSIC has agreed to pro­vide know-how and train­ing.

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