The Minister of Health Dr. Fahrettin Koca represented Turkey at the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation attended by the representatives of vaccine developing and vaccine producing countries and companies. At the meeting, chaired by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhonam Ghebreyesus and the health and foreign ministers of 25 countries delivered speeches. A joint declaration was adopted at the end of the forum, which was organized to promote fair and equal distribution of vaccines worldwide. Noting that the whole world had acknowledged that the pandemic could be over with effective and rapid vaccination, Koca said, "The most effective and the strongest weapon we have are vaccines. The process has clearly demonstrated to us the need for international cooperation on matters such as scaling up of R&D efforts, funding support, information-sharing, vaccine production capacities, technology transfer, distribution capacities, emergency use listings, using and sharing data, pricing policies, and fighting vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. I would like to note that we are ready to cooperate on these matters." Emphasizing that it is sad that there is still no solution to the intellectual property rights debate, Minister Koca continued, "Despite going through the second year of a pandemic that is profoundly effecting every aspect of our lives, the fact that the world is still discussing the limits of intellectual property rights in emergencies contradicts with the urgency of pandemics. It is unfortunate that a solution has yet to be found. This situation reveals the inadequacy of past mechanisms and the need to take firm steps towards the future as soon as possible. I believe that, in this regard, international cooperation should be accelerated. Turkey currently has 20 vaccine studies registered with the World Health Organization. Our goal is to finalize these studies as planned, and make our vaccine available. As declared by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, our vaccine will be made available to the whole world. Access to vaccines is a health right that everyone can enjoy."
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