WHO member countries one step closer to finalize Pandemics Agreement. The thorny issue that remained to be negotiated
The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) asked member countries on Monday to complete this week the last chapter of the Agreement on Pandemics, designed especially to avoid the panic generated at the time by the COVID-19 disease, reports AFP, taken by Agerpres.
The WHO member states, whose representatives met at the Geneva headquarters of this organization, will have until Saturday to resolve the most delicate point of the entire treaty: the practical ways of applying it and, above all, the mechanism for sharing vaccines in the event of a pandemic.
“We must succeed. The next pandemic will not wait”, insisted the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a speech sent to the press.
He urged the member countries not to give in “to the dangerous temptation” to prolong the negotiations, because “the (geopolitical – ed.) climate that has become more and more unfavorable” would do nothing but “complicate things even more”.
After three years of intense negotiations, launched to remedy the gaps and inequalities observed during the reactions adopted against COVID-19 at the national and global level, the member states of the WHO concluded in April 2025 a historic agreement aimed at better preparation and fight against future pandemics.
Sharing vaccines by donation
The treaty wants to guarantee equitable access to health products in the event of a pandemic. The central element is the creation of a “pathogen access and benefit sharing system” (PABS), a formulation that refers to health products such as vaccines.
In exchange for access to data on pathogens, each manufacturer will have to, in the event of a pandemic, make available to the WHO, in real time, rapid access to part of its production of vaccines, treatments and diagnostic products, part of which in the form of a donation.
Last year, the member countries granted themselves an additional year to define all the mechanisms for implementing the mechanism. The results of the negotiations carried out within the Intergovernmental Working Group are to be presented to the World Health Assembly in May, to be examined.
The WHO director-general welcomed negotiators attending the sixth and “what we all hope will be the last meeting” dedicated to finalizing the PABS in Geneva on Monday.
“The conflict in the Middle East and the crises in other parts of the world remind us that health emergencies can suddenly break out and affect many countries, thus increasing the risk of epidemics”, he warned, also urging the negotiators “not to spoil” the long years spent in search of consensus.
“If we don't do this, we will remain at a standstill: no PABS system, and the Agreement on Pandemics will exist only on paper,” added the WHO Director-General.
