Access and benefit-sharing by the European Virus Archive in response to COVID-19

Scarlett Sett (1) , Carolina dos Santos Ribeiro (2) , Christine Prat (3) , George Haringhuizen (2) , Amber Hartman Scholz (1) , Tatjana Avšič (4) , Carrie Batten (5) , Maria Serena Beato (6) , Hervé Bourhy (7) , Antonino Di Caro (8) , Rémi Charrel (3) , Bruno Coutard (3) , Jan Felix Drexler (9, 10) , Christian Drosten (10, 9) , Anthony Fooks (11) , Boris Klempa (12) , Marion Koopmans (13) , Thomas Klimkait (14) , Stephan Günther (15, 16) , Jean-Claude Manuguerra (17, 18) , Ali Mirazimi (19) , Thomas Mettenleiter (20) , Florence Komurian-Pradel (21) , Sven Reiche (20) , Chantal Reusken (22) , Jean-Louis Romette (23) , Sylvie van der Werf (24) , David Williams (25)

1 DSMZ - Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH / Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures
2 Netherlands Center for Infectious Disease Control
3 UVE - Unité des Virus Emergents
4 University of Ljubljana
5 The Pirbright Institute
6 IZSVe - Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie
7 Lyssavirus, épidémiologie et neuropathologie - Lyssavirus Epidemiology and Neuropathology
8 INMI - Istituto Nazionale di Malattie Infettive "Lazzaro Spallanzani"
9 DZIF - German Center for Infection Research, Partnersite Munich
10 Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Charité - University Hospital [Berlin]
11 APHA - Animal and Plant Health Agency [Addlestone, UK]
12 SAS - Slovak Academy of Science [Bratislava]
13 Erasmus MC - Erasmus University Medical Center [Rotterdam]
14 Unibas - University of Basel
15 BNITM - Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine - Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin [Hamburg, Germany]
16 German Center for Infection Research - Partner Site Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel-Riems
17 CIBU - Cellule d'Intervention Biologique d'Urgence (Centre National de Référence) - Laboratory for Urgent Response to Biological Threats (National Reference Center)
18 ERI - Environnement et Risques infectieux - Environment and Infectious Risks
19 Public Health Agency of Sweden
20 FLI - Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut
21 Fondation Mérieux
22 RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [Bilthoven]
23 AMU - Aix Marseille Université
24 GMV-ARN (UMR_3569 / U-Pasteur_2) - Génétique Moléculaire des Virus à ARN - Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses
25 Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness

Biobanking infrastructures, which are crucial for responding early to new viral outbreaks, share pathogen genetic resources in an affordable, safe, and impartial manner and can provide expertise to address access and benefit-sharing issues. The European Virus Archive has had a crucial role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic by distributing EU-subsidised (free of charge) viral resources to users worldwide, providing non-monetary benefit sharing, implementing access and benefit-sharing compliance, and raising access and benefit-sharing awareness among members and users. All currently available SARS-CoV-2 material in the European Virus Archive catalogue, including variants of concern, are not access and benefit-sharing cases per se, but multilateral benefit-sharing has nevertheless occurred. We propose and discuss how a multilateral system enabling access and benefit-sharing from pathogen genetic resources, based on the European Virus Archive operational model, could help bridge the discrepancies between the current bilateral legal framework for pathogen genetic resources and actual pandemic response practices.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Scarlett Sett, Carolina dos Santos Ribeiro, Christine Prat, George Haringhuizen, Amber Hartman Scholz, et al.. Access and benefit-sharing by the European Virus Archive in response to COVID-19. The Lancet Microbe, 2022, 3 (4), pp.e316-e323. ⟨10.1016/s2666-5247(21)00211-1⟩. ⟨pasteur-03915037⟩