Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed to a legally binding treaty text designed to properly tackle future pandemics.
The agreement is intended to avoid resource disruption and competition seen during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Key factors include the rapid sharing of data on new diseases to enable scientists and pharmaceutical companies to work more quickly to develop treatments and vaccines.
WHO itself is also the first to have an overview of the global supply chain for masks, medical gowns and other personal protective equipment (PPE).
Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the transaction as “an important milestone in our shared journey to a safer world.”
“[Member states] “We have also demonstrated that multilateralism lives on and in our divided world, nations can work together to find common ground and find a shared response to shared threats,” he said.
The binding agreement reached early on Wednesday came after three years of consultations between member states.
This is the second time in WHO’s 75-year history that this type of international agreement has been reached. This is the 2003 cigarette management agreement.
When we meet for the World Health Parliament next month, members will still need to formally recruit.
US negotiators were not part of the final debate after President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from global health agencies. When he left in 2026, the United States will not be bound by the agreement.
Under agreed terms, countries should make pandemic-related drugs available worldwide in future pandemics.
Participating manufacturers should allocate 20% of the production of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics to the WHO. At least 10% of the remaining amounts to be donated.
The country has also approved the transfer of health technologies to poor countries, as long as it is “mutually agreed.”
This should allow local production of vaccines and drugs during the pandemic. But the clause was very controversial.
Developing countries are still angry at the way wealthy countries bought and stocked up on vaccines during Covid-19, but countries with a large pharmaceutical industry are worried that essential relocations could undermine research and development.
At the heart of the contract is the proposed Pathogen Access and Benefit System (PABS), which allows for faster exchange of data between pharmaceutical companies.
This should allow these companies to begin working on new drugs more quickly in future outbreaks.
