The Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) announced today that it makes its antibody serological test for covid-19.
Institution signed a new agreement with the public health agency Patent medicines Pool (MPP), with support from the UN and supervision by the World Health Organization (WHO), which will facilitate the reach of this technology to the countries most in need.
According to the agency, this is the first time that a public research center has transferred technology through the initiative COVID-19 technology access pool (C-TAP) of WHO to facilitate equal access to covid-19 health technologies.
The agreement was signed today at an institutional event at the CSIC headquarters in Madrid, chaired by the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant; the president of the CSIC, Rosa Menendez; the executive director of MPP, Charles Gore; and the WHO deputy director general for Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals, Mariangela Simão.
This agreement represents the first global open access license for a health tool related to covid-19
Through a video, the director general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, thanked the CSIC for the generosity in signing this contract.
Diana Morant highlighted that this is the first transfer of a technology developed by a public agency that adheres to this initiative and highlighted that, “with agreements like those of today, we are protecting lives”. “Science has a universal vocation, to improve people’s lives, and this is also a firm commitment of our government: that public science is at the service of all”, he said.
In her turn, Rosa Menéndez underlined the importance of finding solutions so that technologies related to the pandemic in particular and to health in general reach all countries, including those most in need. “In this sense, we would like this action by the CSIC, if involved in the international initiatives of the MPP and the WHO, to become an example and a reference for other research organizations in the world.”
For Mariangela Simão, the agreement “constitutes a milestone in the race to prevent, diagnose and treat covid-19 in needy countries. technology and knowledge”, he declared.
This agreement represents the first global open access license for a health tool related to covid-19. The company is part of the C-TAP initiative, created by WHO in May 2020 to facilitate timely, equal and affordable access to covid-19 healthcare products by promoting their production.
This initiative offers a single global window for entities developing technologies to address covid-19, such as therapies, vaccines and diagnostic systems, with the aim of sharing their intellectual property (patents), knowledge and data with quality-proven manufacturers through transparent licenses, non-exclusive and willing to serve public health, according to the CSIC.
Test with reliability close to 100%
CSIC serological tests entered the market in Spain in the fall of 2020, from the hands of the Spanish company Immunostep, and allow detecting with a reliability close to 100% whether a person has antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, and whether these antibodies come from the vaccine, or are a consequence of contact with the virus.
CSIC and WHO worked to find the most suitable formula. Through the agreement, MPP will be able to sublicense the rights to exploit Spanish serological tests to companies in countries that need this technology.
CSIC and WHO I worked for several months to find the most suitable formula. Through the agreement announced today, MPP will be able to sublicense the rights to exploit CSIC serological tests to companies in countries that need this technology.
“The novelty of the agreement is that the CSIC will not charge royalties for the exploitation of its technology, as long as it is manufactured for countries included in the list with low- or middle-income countries, or in the countries themselves”, said Javier Maira, head of the Commercial Strategy and Internationalization Area at the CSIC.
The agreement also provides that companies that sell these tests will have to readjust their prices so that they are affordable in the country that sells them. In this way, the three organizations are confident that the tests will reach low-income countries and be accessible to their citizens and health systems.
“It is the first time that this formula has been used for a CSIC technology to reach countries that need it and, of course, if successful, the CSIC will make other technologies available to MPP”, said Ana Castro.
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