539. Ecuador wishes to thank the delegation of South Africa for including this agenda item. Its inclusion is timely in a context where we should be joining forces and coordinating activities to re-establish our present and future global health security.
540. We wish to reiterate our commitment to the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (the amendment to which entered into force in 2017), which contributes by ensuring that Members have the right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.
541. Examining the issue raised by South Africa will most certainly help us to better understand the extent to which different forms of intellectual property rights allow or prevent access to the various types of technologies and products needed to tackle COVID-19.
542. The need for access to treatments, diagnostic methods, and medical devices and supplies, as well as the search for a vaccine, are concerns that must be taken into consideration by the international intellectual property system.
543. It is important to take into account that the flexibilities set out in the Agreement are not limited to patents, and we must therefore consider all the various forms of intellectual property in order to address this issue in a holistic manner.
544. In this context, adopting a multilateral cooperative approach that seeks to foster innovation, creation and technology transfer will ensure that the intellectual property system constitutes a key tool for providing answers to countries in their efforts to combat this pandemic.
