At the closing of the Special Meeting of the Social Council of ALBA-TCP corresponding to the health sector, the People’s Power Minister for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, celebrated that today, thanks to the cooperation between the Heads of States of the member countries, the vaccine bank and the drug bank for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the member countries of the regional integration bloc has become a reality.
He stressed that these banks are very important because they will serve in two directions: “Vaccines tend to be the structural solution, but it takes time, requires logistics, production and transfer; meanwhile, in all countries of the world, but especially in our Latin America, cases are presented daily and that is what we must prioritize” with the treatment bank.
The FM thanked the ALBA Bank for the availability of funds to carry out these projects of vaccine and drug banks, and urged that once the creation phase with structure and financing have been overcome, move towards action, to joint negotiation “as a group of countries”, with the laboratories of Russia, the United States, China or where appropriate.
He emphasized that the negotiations for the purchase of vaccines and medicines be carried out on behalf of the ALBA-TCP States, since “this will provide us with a better opportunity when it comes to having vaccines, better prices and, consequently, to be able to buy more (…) It is very important that this joint method is well established” for the purchases .
The Venezuelan diplomat also congratulated that ministers of health, at the meeting, proposed the exchange of experiences and the attempt to coordinate medical protocols between the allied states. To this initiative, the FM also proposed to share the protocols and good practices for addressing the pandemic with other friendly countries of the Caribbean and South America, “transmitting our will and disposition as ALBA-TCP to also address these treatments.”