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Time of India
20-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
India adopts pandemic treaty; PM says world health depends on global south status
New Delhi: In a major development for public health and improving preparedness for future pandemics, India has joined other WHO member states in jointly adopting the global pandemic treaty at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. Speaking at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, the Prime Minister said, 'The future of a healthy world depends on inclusion, and the health of the world depends on how well we care for the most vulnerable, especially in the Global South who are particularly impacted by health challenges.' 'India's initiatives have brought down out-of-pocket expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure significantly, while government health expenditure has increased considerably,' he noted. The summit's key objective was to conclude negotiations on the Global Pandemic Treaty, and the Prime Minister congratulated the World Health Organization (WHO) and all member states on the successful conclusion of negotiations by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the Pandemic Treaty. According to a WHO release, 'Governments adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement today in a plenary session of the World Health Assembly, WHO's peak decision-making body.' The adoption was based on the approval of the Agreement by vote in Committee by Member State delegations, where 124 members voted in favor, while 11 abstained. No objections were raised by any member state during the voting process. In his address, the PM cited examples of schemes like Ayushman Bharat, which covers 580 million people and provides free treatment in India, and public pharmacies across the country that provide medicines at prices significantly lower than the market rate. 'India has established a vast network of Health and Wellness Centres (HWC)that offer screening for major conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. India's digital platform to track vaccination of pregnant women and children is helping to integrate benefits, insurance, records, and information,' he noted. The WHO Pandemic Agreement sets out the principles, approaches, and tools for better international coordination across a range of areas, in order to strengthen the global health architecture for pandemic prevention , preparedness, and response. This includes equitable and timely access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Notably, the treaty was adopted in the absence of the United States, a major contributor to the WHO's annual budget, which withdrew its funding commitments to the global public health body earlier this year.
Hans India
20-05-2025
- Health
- Hans India
WHO adopts historic Pandemic Agreement to bridge global healthcare gaps, inequities
Geneva: In a historic move, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday formally adopted the world's first Pandemic Agreement, after three years of negotiations. The Agreement, adopted by consensus by member countries of the WHO at the ongoing 78th World Health Assembly, aims to bridge global healthcare gaps and inequities in case of future pandemics. Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, which killed millions of people worldwide, the WHO Member States in December 202`1 established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement, or other international instrument, under the WHO Constitution, to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. After 13 formal rounds of meetings, nine of which were extended, and many informal and intersessional negotiations on various aspects of the draft agreement, the proposal was finalised in April this year. The Pandemic Agreement aims to prepare governments for future pandemics following the Covid-19 outbreak, which killed millions of people between the years of 2020 and 2022. 'The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration, and commitment of our Member States to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,' said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. 'The Agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats. It is also a recognition by the international community that our citizens, societies, and economies must not be left vulnerable to again suffer losses like those endured during Covid-19,' Ghebreyesus added. The WHO Pandemic Agreement is the second international legal agreement negotiated under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution, the first being the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in 2005. The resolution includes launching a process to draft and negotiate a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System (PABS) through an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG). Once the Assembly adopts the PABS annex, the WHO 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. 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 based on public health risk and need, with particular attention to the needs of developing countries, the WHO said.
Deccan Herald
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Making the world pandemic-ready
The move for a treaty that would help the world deal with pandemics started during the Covid period. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body was set up in December 2021.
The Hindu
21-04-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Landmark agreement: on the draft WHO Pandemic Agreement
After nearly three-and-a-half years and 13 rounds of meetings, member-states of the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed on measures to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics. On April 16, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body finalised a proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The draft, described as a 'generational accord to make the world safer', is now ready to be adopted next month by the World Health Assembly. Though more limited in scope than the ambitious one first proposed by WHO, it is still a remarkable achievement considering the varied priorities and compulsions for the Global North and the developing countries, especially with the U.S. not a part of WHO since January. While the developed countries baulked on firm commitments to sharing diagnostics, treatments, vaccines and technology transfers, developing countries hesitated to commit to sharing pathogen samples and genome sequences without assured access to tests, treatments and vaccines developed using the shared material. The disagreements are reminiscent of how Indonesia turned the spotlight on the inequitable H5N1 sample sharing mechanism in the mid-2000s in the absence of equitable and affordable access to vaccines developed using its samples. The first article that all countries agreed upon was the commitment to protect health-care workers better. The most remarkable achievement was in getting every country to agree on the pathogen access and benefit sharing system. Developing countries that share pathogen samples and genome sequence data are guaranteed to get access to any diagnostics, vaccines or treatments that are developed using the samples/data. Negotiations on how countries will share samples and vaccines/drugs are set to continue. Pharmaceutical companies have committed to donate 10% of their production to WHO and offer up to another 10% at affordable prices. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the inequitable vaccine distribution to the fore. Many developed countries stockpiled vaccines while many developing countries, especially those in Africa, were left waiting for vaccines. The case of vaccine manufacturers sharing the technology with developing countries during a pandemic has also been sorted out. The main debate centered around the conditions under which this transfer will happen. Countries have agreed that technology transfer will be on 'mutually agreed terms', and not 'voluntary' as pharma companies wanted it to be. According to the journal, Nature, besides 'promoting equitable access to health products, the treaty underlines that countries should 'promote and otherwise facilitate or incentivise' the exchange of technology and know-how' that will enable developing countries to make their own vaccines.
