Five-day Geneva talks make progress on a system to share pathogen materials and ensure equitable access to vaccines, treatments and tests
By Bunmi Yekini
Governments made progress this week on a proposed system for sharing pathogen samples and genetic sequence information as part of efforts to strengthen the world’s response to future pandemics, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The five-day talks in Geneva focused on a pathogen access and benefit-sharing (PABS) system, a key part of the WHO Pandemic Agreement adopted by member states in 2025.
The proposed system is intended to enable the rapid sharing of materials and genetic sequence information from pathogens with pandemic potential while ensuring that vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic tools developed from them are shared rapidly and equitably.
The negotiations come days before a United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in New York on Sept. 25. A political declaration due to be considered at the meeting calls for the PABS annex to be completed promptly.
“We made a promise after COVID-19 that we would not leave the world as vulnerable to the next pandemic as it was to the last,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Tedros said completing the annex was essential to strengthening global defences against future pandemic threats.
The WHO said finalising the annex would clear the way for countries to sign and consider ratifying the broader Pandemic Agreement, which is designed to strengthen international coordination on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
The agreement has sought to address concerns exposed by COVID-19, including the speed at which countries share information about emerging pathogens and whether countries where samples originate can benefit fairly from medical products developed using them.
Brazilian Ambassador Tovar da Silva Nunes, co-chair of the negotiating group, said the progress made at the meeting provided direction for further talks.
The negotiations will continue as governments work towards completing the PABS annex.
The meeting also elected Ahmed Al Mandhari, an undersecretary at Oman’s Ministry of Health, as a vice-chair of the negotiating group. He joins Vuyile Dlamini of Eswatini and Viroj Tangcharoensathien of Thailand.