WHO extends pandemic pact talks

WHO member states agreed this week to keep negotiating the last unfinished piece of the organization’s pandemic agreement, leaving unresolved the rules for how countries share dangerous pathogens and how resulting vaccines, tests and treatments are distributed. The decision was taken at the World Health Assembly after negotiators failed to finish the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing, or PABS, annex in time for adoption this year. The annex is required before countries can move ahead with signature and ratification of the broader agreement, according to the WHO. The delay keeps open the most politically sensitive argument left over from the COVID-19 era: what countries owe one another when samples and genetic sequence data help produce commercial medical products. ### Why is one annex holding up the broader pact? The WHO said on May 1 that the PABS annex is “the last piece of the puzzle” for the pandemic agreement adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 20, 2025. Under the 2025 resolution, member states created an Intergovernmental Working Group to draft that annex and complete the agreement so it could be opened for signature and ratification. (who.int) Article 12 of the agreement calls for a system that puts pathogen access and benefit sharing on an “equal footing,” according to WHO materials and delegates’ interventions reported from the assembly. In practice, that means deciding how quickly countries must share samples and sequence information during a pandemic threat, and what manufacturers and richer countries must provide in return. (who.int) ### What exactly would the PABS system govern? The WHO said the PABS system is intended to ensure the rapid sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use. Those benefits include vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. Health Policy Watch reported that the annex would govern how dangerous pathogens are shared during public health emergencies and how medical products produced from that information are shared. (who.int) That question has become central because countries that supplied samples during COVID-19 often did not get timely access to the products developed from them. ### Where are countries still divided? Pakistan told WHO Committee A that some member states were trying to weaken Article 12 and warned it would not support a system that preserved “the commercial privileges of a handful of manufacturers,” according to Health Policy Watch. South Africa, speaking for African countries, pressed for legally binding contracts between the WHO and manufacturers. (healthpolicy-watch.news) The European Union said the system should not stifle innovation and research and development, and argued the annex must be designed so the private sector would participate. Those positions capture the core split between developing countries seeking firmer guarantees on access and wealthier countries focused on preserving incentives for industry participation. That characterization is an inference from the delegates’ stated positions. (healthpolicy-watch.news) ### What has WHO said about the delay? Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said on May 1 that “real progress was made” on the annex and that differences could be overcome through continued negotiations. He also said member states should keep a sense of urgency because “the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if.” (healthpolicy-watch.news) WHO has separately warned this year about rising outbreak risk and strained emergency capacity. In a February statement, the agency said the impact of COVID-19 remained visible while countries faced avian influenza, mpox, Ebola, Marburg and measles. In its 2026 emergency appeal, WHO said severe funding constraints had disrupted more than 6,600 health facilities and cut off care for more than 53 million people. (who.int) ### What happens next, and when? The WHO said the assembly would be asked to continue the Intergovernmental Working Group’s mandate and submit an outcome to the next World Health Assembly in May 2027, or earlier through a special session in 2026 if agreement is reached sooner. The group’s seventh meeting is scheduled for July 6-17, 2026. (who.int) Health Policy Watch reported that several member states said they believed the annex could be completed by the end of 2026. For now, the pandemic agreement adopted in 2025 remains incomplete until the PABS annex is finished and approved. (healthpolicy-watch.news) (who.int)