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Hindustan Times
12-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
W.H.O. member States hold first meeting after Pandemic pact
The World Health Organisation (WHO) member states have held their first meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement that was adopted a couple of months ago, according to a statement issued by the UN health body on Friday. W.H.O. member States hold first meeting after Pandemic pact The aim of the meeting was to formalize next steps on implementing key provisions of the historic legal instrument to make the world safer from future pandemics, it said. The meeting was held late on Thursday. Brazil's Ambassador Tovar da Silva Nunes, co-chair of the IGWG Bureau guiding the negotiations, said in a statement that the first meeting was a critical moment in the global effort to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The meeting was the first one after the World Health Assembly's landmark adoption on May 20, this year, of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The agreement, which is legally binding, came into being because of the challenges faced during the Covid-19 crisis and the disjointed response to it, and aims to ensure countries work together for more effective prevention, preparation, and response to future pandemics. It will ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20% of their vaccines, medicines, and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access. 'Through the WHO Pandemic Agreement, countries recognized that global collaboration and action, based on equity, are essential for protecting people from future pandemics,' said Tovar. 'Now, through the IGWG, countries are breathing life into the Agreement by establishing the way forward to implement the Agreement's life-saving provisions.' The Assembly established the IGWG to, as a priority, draft and negotiate an annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). 'This PABS system is intended to enable safe, transparent and accountable access and benefit-sharing for PABS materials and sequence information. The outcome of the IGWG's work on the PABS annex will be submitted to the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly in 2026 for its consideration,' read the statement. In addition to negotiating the PABS annex, the IGWG has been established to discuss procedural and other matters to prepare for the Conference of the Parties to the pandemic agreement and develop a proposal for the terms of reference for the Coordinating Financial Mechanism. 'Global collaboration is the foundation of an effective response to global threats,' said Matthew Harpur, fellow IGWG bureau co-chair, of the United Kingdom. The first meeting of the IGWG adopted the body's method of work, timeline of activities leading up to next year's World Health Assembly, and mode of engagement with relevant stakeholders, and elected co-chairs and vice chairs to lead the IGWG process. 'The IGWG also decided to identify experts to provide inputs on the PABS annex and possibly hold an informal briefing before the second meeting of the IGWG, which will be held on 15-19 September 2025,' read the statement.
Gulf Today
21-05-2025
- Health
- Gulf Today
WHO Assembly approves Pandemic Agreement
There have been many questions about how well or how badly the World Health Organisation (WHO) had responded to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 even as it spread like wildfire from China's Wuhan first to Italy and Iran, and then spread to other countries in Europe and from there to the United States and other countries in North and South America. While the economically advanced countries and the big global pharmaceutical companies located in these countries were able to get a breakthrough Covid vaccine, and speedily made available to people at large, most of the poor countries were left totally vulnerable and without the financial means to access the vaccines. There was also the issue that the governments of advanced economies refused to share the vaccines until their own needs were met. So, the big pharma firms could not see their vaccine where they wanted to. The WHO had however tried to organise relief, and countries like India, UAE and others tried to share the vaccines. Learning from the difficulties it had faced as a world organisation and responsible to the people of all countries, especially the poorer ones in places like Africa, during a global medical emergency of the Covid kind, WHO had been deliberating on the issue of how to help the most vulnerable who are not in a position to access the medicines and the finances to cope with the disaster. So, the WHO has come up with a plan to enable cooperation among member-countries and the big pharma companies. It has been called the Pandemic Agreement and the WHO Assembly had passed the agreement on Monday. It starts with the caveat that the agreement will not in any way be imposed on a country where the national laws will prevail. This is to acknowledge the principle of national sovereignty of each of the member-countries. Dr. Teodora Herbosa, Secretary of the Philippines Department of Health and present president of the WHO Assembly, said, 'Now that the Agreement has been brought to life, we must all act with the same urgency to implement its critical elements, including systems to ensure equitable access to life-saving pandemic-related health products.' The Agreement lays stress on ways and means to closer global cooperation in the wake of a pandemic in the future. Herbosa says that relevant lessons from Covid-19 have been drawn in drawing up plans for a future emergency. The Agreement as it stands now is incomplete. The annex, called the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System (PABS), needs to be negotiated by the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), and it would need to be passed in the WHO Assembly next year. The Agreement with the PABS annex will then need to be ratified by each of the 138 countries. The member-countries have asked the IGWG to set up a Coordination Financial Mechanism for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network (GSCL) which will help bring down the barriers and facilitate access to pandemic-related life-saving drugs. The point of cheer is that all members of WHO had agreed the need to stand with each other, cooperate with each other at the time of a global emergency like the Covid. The IGWG now has to work out the mechanisms of making the agreement, which includes PABS. During Covid, WHO was only able o rustle up help in an ad hoc fashion, and it had to depend on the generosity of the member-countries. The Pandemic Agreement formally binds all the member-countries to come to the aid of WHO, which will in turn see to it that help reaches the poor and vulnerable countries.
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Business Standard
20-05-2025
- Health
- Business Standard
WHO members back resolution for global pact to prevent future pandemics
Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) voted in favour of a resolution calling for the adoption of a global compact to prevent future pandemics. The pandemic agreement and the resolution calling for its adoption will be discussed by the full plenary of the World Health Assembly on May 20. Immediately after, a High-Level segment featuring statements from Heads of State of various nations will follow, according to WHO press release. The vote in favour of the Pandemic Agreement resolution follows a more than three-year process, launched by governments during the Covid-19 pandemic, to negotiate the world's first such accord to address the gaps and inequities in preventing, preparing for and responding to pandemics. In a press release, WHO stated, "This watershed agreement was adopted under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution. It aims to foster stronger collaboration and cooperation among countries, international organisations like WHO, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders to prevent pandemics occurring in the first place, and to better respond in the event of a future pandemic crisis." WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated member states for resolving to come together in the aftermath of Covid-19 to better protect the world from future pandemics. In a press release, Ghebreyesus stated, "Governments from all over the world are making their countries, and our interconnected global community, more equitable, healthier and safer from the threats posed by pathogens and viruses of pandemic potential." "I congratulate WHO's Member States for resolving to come together in the aftermath of Covid-19 to better protect the world from future pandemics. Their work to develop this global accord will ensure countries work better, faster and more equitably together to prevent and respond to the next pandemic threat," he added. The resolution sets out several steps for taking the world forward and preparing for implementing the Pandemic Agreement. It includes launching a process to draft and negotiate an annex to the Agreement to establish a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) through an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG). The result of this process will be considered at next year's World Health Assembly. After the Assembly adopts the PABS annex, the Pandemic Agreement will then be open for signature and consideration of ratification, including by national legislative bodies. After 60 ratifications, the Agreement will enter into force. Furthermore, Member States also instructed the IGWG to initiate steps to allow creation of the Coordinating Financial Mechanism for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network (GSCL) to "enhance, facilitate, and work to remove barriers and ensure equitable, timely, rapid, safe, and affordable access to pandemic-related health products for countries in need during public health emergencies of international concern, including pandemic emergencies, and for prevention of such emergencies." In a press release, the WHO stated, "According to the Agreement, pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in the PABS system will play a key role in equitable and timely access to pandemic-related health products by making available to WHO 'rapid access targeting 20 per cent of their real time production of safe, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for the pathogen causing the pandemic emergency.' The distribution of these products to countries will be carried out on the basis of public health risk and need, with particular attention to the needs of developing countries and those supported through the GSCL." The Pandemic Agreement aligns with the International Health Regulations, amendments to which were adopted by governments during the World Health Assembly last year to bolster international rules to better detect, prevent and respond to outbreaks. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) that coordinated and facilitated the process to draft and negotiate the Pandemic Agreement. He praised the work and excellence of the WHO Secretariat team, which supported the Bureau and Member States, led by Dr Michael Ryan and Dr Jaouad Mahjour. He stated, "An immensely talented, experienced and driven WHO team was assembled to support the vision of governments to develop this historic Pandemic Agreement." "This group of individuals, representing so many countries and regions of the world, deserve enormous credit and thanks from the international community for what they have done to help make the world safer for future generations," he added.
