Geneva, 15 May 26 - The Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), established to negotiate the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) annex to the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, was expected to finalise the operational details of the PABS system for adoption by the World Health Assembly next week. Concluding this annex is critical, as countries cannot fully ratify and implement the Agreement without it. However, despite six rounds of negotiations, major technical and political disagreements remain, with only limited progress made on the draft text. As per the WHO, the progress made so far will be presented at the World Health Assembly next week, alongside a request to extend the negotiations and present the outcomes either at the next Assembly in May 2027 or earlier through a special session of the World Health Assembly in 2026.
Based on decades of frontline experience of responding to multiple outbreaks and emergencies, including Ebola and COVID-19, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to closely follow the negotiations and advocate for a PABS system that ensures fair and equitable benefit sharing in exchange for access to pathogens and data used in research and development, including clinical trials.
Dr Maria Guevara, International Medical Secretary of MSF
MSF calls on countries to advance the negotiations toward a strong multilateral PABS framework that links access to pathogens and data to enforceable benefit sharing commitments and to help bring the Pandemic Agreement into effect.
“For decades, MSF has witnessed communities in resource-limited settings affected by deadly outbreaks, including Ebola and more recently COVID-19, often receive no or severely delayed access to lifesaving medical tools. Communities who share critical samples and data, and those most at risk during outbreaks and health emergencies cannot anymore be the last to benefit from medical innovation.”
“We call on countries to advance the negotiations toward a strong multilateral PABS framework that links access to pathogens and data to enforceable benefit sharing commitments and to help bring the Pandemic Agreement into effect.”
“As future outbreaks remain inevitable and lives continue to be at risk due to inequitable access, we strongly urge governments to act now to lay the groundwork for early implementation of the Pandemic Agreement through concrete measures.”
