WHO promotes new bio-colonialism – mRNA instead of medical diversity

What is the WHO Health Technology Access Program (HTAP)?

The World Health Organization’s Health Technology Access Programme (HTAP) is a global initiative aimed at improving access to health technologies in low- and middle-income countries. It is based on the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and is closely linked to the mRNA Technology Transfer Program. HTAP is a response to inequalities in healthcare, aims to facilitate technology transfer, build regional production capacity, and collaborate with stakeholders such as the Medicines Patent Pool and selected research institutions.

But what at first glance appears to be an act of solidarity turns out, upon closer inspection, to be a technocratic project with far-reaching geopolitical and economic implications.

The WHO’s technocratic colonialism

The World Health Organization presents HTAP as “hope for the Global South.” But in reality, it manifests a system of global control under the guise of health solidarity. A closer look reveals HTAP less as a program to strengthen local autonomy than as an instrument for enforcing Western-dominated biopolitics.

1. Centralism instead of self-determination

The WHO centrally manages HTAP. Countries in the Global South are not equal partners, but rather recipients of “selected” technologies. The definition of what is needed lies not with the affected regions themselves, but with a small control center of the global health bureaucracy. This is the opposite of participatory development.

2. License management instead of technology freedom

Instead of disseminating open technologies, HTAP relies on managing intellectual property rights through the Medicines Patent Pool. Patents remain in place, and transfers are based on selective licensing. This keeps access limited and controlled. The supposed assistance is in fact a loan system with conditions that prevent true independence.

3. mRNA as a hegemonic platform

The integration of the mRNA technology program demonstrates that this is not just about traditional medical devices, but about the global implementation of a new, proprietary biotechnology platform. Instead of promoting diverse, locally adapted solutions, a one-size-fits-all biotechnology model is being exported – including dependencies on manufacturers like Moderna or BioNTech.

4. Global power architecture instead of health justice

HTAP is part of a comprehensive strategy to centralize global health governance. Actors like GAVI, CEPI, and the Gates Foundation operate in the background, without democratic oversight. The intertwining of philanthropy, technocracy, and global crisis management is leading to a new form of bio-colonialism: the bodies of people in the Global South are becoming a testing ground and a market.

5. No transparency, no accountability

Who decides on “priority technologies”? According to what criteria? What interests lie behind the selection processes? HTAP fails to provide answers. The lack of transparency is systemic: Neither civil society nor critical sciences have any influence on the strategic direction.

Conclusion:

HTAP is not the path to a more just world, but a symptom of a deeper problem: medical care is increasingly becoming a geopolitical instrument of power. Instead of liberation, a new digital-biological colonialism under the WHO flag threatens. What we need is not more administration, but radical openness, decentralized research, and the reclaiming of technological sovereignty from below.

yogaesoteric
May 16, 2025