No final agreement as deadline for pandemic accord closes

Even as negotiations among governments went into the final hours on Friday –  the last day of negotiations among 194 World Health Organisation (WHO) member states – the final draft agreement to prevent, prepare, and manage future pandemics did not take concrete shape, people familiar with the matter said.

The United Nations health body in a statement, however, said that significant progress had been made regarding the drafting of the accord and that the talks are going to continue further till the start of the World Health Assembly towards May end.

“Governments of the world today agreed to continue working on a proposed pandemic agreement, and to further refine the draft, ahead of the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly that starts 27 May 2024,” said WHO in a statement.

“Governments meeting at the World Health Organisation headquarters in Geneva agreed to resume hybrid and in-person discussions over coming weeks to advance work on critical issues, including around a proposed new global system for pathogen access and benefits sharing (i.e. life-saving vaccines, treatments and diagnostics); pandemic prevention and One Health; and the financial coordination needed to scale up countries’ capacities to prepare for and respond to pandemics”, it added.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said, “During more than two years of intensive negotiations, WHO’s member states have shown unwavering commitment to forging a generational agreement to protect the world from a repeat of the horrors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” “I welcome the determination that all countries have shown to continue their work and fulfil the mission on which they embarked.”

The member state-led Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) was established two years ago to take this effort forward. The Bureau of the INB, which is guiding the process, will submit its outcome for consideration at the World Health Assembly.

INB Bureau co-chair Dr Precious Matsoso, from South Africa, said, progress had been made during this latest round of discussions on a wide range of issues contained in the draft agreement.

“We are witnessing history play out before our eyes during this process, with the coming together of all countries to decide a binding pact to protect all citizens of the world,” said Matsoso.

“This is not a simple exercise. This is the first-ever process to develop a proposed agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Getting this done means getting it right, and the INB Bureau is committed to helping finalise a meaningful, lasting agreement,” he added.

Fellow INB Bureau co-chair, Roland Driece, from the Netherlands, said when countries launched the process two years ago to develop a pandemic agreement, they did so knowing they had set an ambitious timeline to reach an ambitious goal.

“This unprecedented effort by all WHO member states was launched in response to an unprecedented global emergency – the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Driece. “These sovereign states did so recognising that great collaboration and coordination were needed in the face of pandemics. While negotiations have been challenging at times, all countries agree that the world must be better prepared for the next pandemic. It is not a matter of if a pandemic will happen again, it is a matter of when. We cannot afford to miss this historic opportunity to make the world safer from the next pandemic threat,” he added.

In March 2021, heads of state and government from two dozen countries issued a statement of commitment calling for global collaboration to prepare for, prevent and respond to pandemics.

In December 2021, in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Assembly at its second-ever special session established an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of WHO to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. This was driven by the need to ensure communities, governments, and all sectors of society – within countries and globally – are better prepared and protected, in order to prevent and respond to future pandemics.

At the heart of the proposed accord is the need to ensure equity in both access to the tools needed to prevent pandemics (including technologies like vaccines, personal protective equipment, information and expertise) and access to health care for all people. The key point of contention between the developed and developing countries has been the clause for “benefit sharing” that expected sharing of drugs and vaccines equitably to avoid a repeat of the situation that was seen during the Covid pandemic where vaccine hoarding and bulk procurement of products by developed countries resulted in countries like those in Africa in want of supplies. US senators reportedly had a problem with giving up on intellectual property rights, and the UK had issues with giving away a significant portion of its vaccines.