Two and a half years of meticulous work have yet to bear fruit. Friday, May 10, delegates from the 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO), meeting in Geneva (Switzerland), remained unable to agree on a global preparedness and response agreement. to pandemics. They launched the process in December 2021 to avoid a repeat of the failures in international cooperation which hampered the response to the Covid-19 epidemic, to the detriment in particular of developing countries.
At the end of what was supposed to be the last day of its work, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), which was responsible for writing a document likely to be formally adopted during the World Health Assembly at the end of May, was no longer working on the substance of the text but on the follow-up to be given to his mandate, according to several observers. In the evening, the WHO announced via a press release that its member states had agreed to continue discussions in the coming weeks.
Financing, access to vaccines and treatments, loosening of intellectual property rules for health products, transparency of contracts between States and manufacturers… Over the months, the discussions, involving strong commercial issues, have often pitted nations against each other. low income concerned” equity “ to the developed economies of the “North” countries. Among the most discussed points: the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System (PABS), through which the provision of information concerning a pathogen – essential for the development of vaccines and treatments – would be associated with a mechanism guaranteeing access to health products developed using this data.
Intellectual property
According to the latest version of the draft agreement, the WHO is thus reserved 20% of the global production of countermeasures produced within the framework of PABS – half free of charge, half at a preferential price – in order to guide them towards disadvantaged countries. A monetary contribution would be requested from system participants, and transfers of technology and know-how are envisaged.
In a communicated released in late April, African Union health ministers signaled their support for PABS, as well as national laws providing “broad exemptions and limitations to intellectual property to address public health emergencies”but also a “new financial support” from rich countries against pandemics, including through “debt relief and restructuring mechanisms”.
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