Pandemic Agreement

SouthViews No. 297, 3 October 2025

The negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System under the WHO Pandemic Agreement: State of Play as of September 2025

By Viviana Munoz Tellez, German Velasquez

The World Health Organization (WHO) Member States adopted a Pandemic Agreement in May 2025 but deferred negotiations on the critical Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System (PABS). Despite the tight timeline, the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) has made minimal progress as of September 2025, with no draft text produced and formal negotiations yet to begin. The PABS system is essential for pandemic equity, balancing rapid pathogen sharing with equitable access to vaccines and treatments. But with the current approach to the IGWG process, without formal negotiations underway, Member States risk failing to finalize the PABS Annex by the March 2026 deadline.

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Book by the South Centre, 2025

Negotiating Global Health Policies

Tensions and Dilemmas

Description:

This book presents reflections and research that highlight tensions in the negotiations on pandemic preparedness treaties and revisions to the International Health Regulations, underscoring the geopolitical divide between developed and developing countries. It advocates regional health initiatives as a response to the multilateral impasse and reflects on the erosion of foundational public health concepts such as “essential medicines”.

New pandemics are inevitable. How can we best prepare for them and, above all, how can we avoid the mistakes and injustices made during the COVID-19 pandemic?

How can equitable access to medicines and diagnostics be guaranteed when they are produced in a small number of countries? How can we explain the fact that current funding for cooperation in the field of health is in the hands of a small group of Northern countries and foundations from the North? How can the role of the World Health Organization be strengthened? WHO now plays only a minor role in coordinating public health policies. How is it that the concept of “essential medicines”, a major advance in public health policy, is being replaced by that of “medical countermeasures”, a term more in line with the private sectors?

Preparing for future pandemics forces us to ask ourselves: how can we safeguard the general interest, the defense of human rights and public health?

Negotiating Global Health Policies: Tensions and Dilemmas is essential reading for negotiators from the 194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) who participate in international negotiations on health and development. Academics and students of medicine, health sciences, law, sociology and political science, as well as intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations who work on access to medicines and global health issues, also would find the book of interest.

Author: Germán Velásquez is Special Adviser, Policy and Health of the South Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Previously, he was Director of the Secretariat on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property at WHO. He represented WHO at the WTO TRIPS Council from 2001 to 2010. He is the author and co-author of numerous publications on health economics and medicines, health insurance schemes, globalization, international trade agreements, intellectual property and access to medicines.

He obtained a Master’s degree in Economics and a PhD in Health Economics from Sorbonne University, Paris. In 2010, he received a Honoris Causa PhD on Public Health from the University of Caldas, Colombia and in 2015 he received another Honoris Causa PhD from the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

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SouthViews No. 295, 24 September 2025

New Amendments to the International Health Regulations: Strengthening Access to Health Products in Emergencies and Pandemics

By Viviana Munoz Tellez

The International Health Regulations amendments entered into force on September 19, 2025 across most World Health Organization (WHO) Member States. These updates don’t give WHO any new powers but help countries work better together to advance fair and timely access to health products such as vaccines, treatments and diagnostics needed to respond to health emergencies. The real challenge now is implementation and building the necessary capabilities to make these improvements function.

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SC Webinar Report – AMS, COVID-19 & Pandemic Preparedness, May 2025

Webinar Report:

Advancing Antimicrobial Stewardship Policies: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Priorities for Future Health Emergencies

By Dr Rasha Abdelsalam Elshenawy

Our recent South Centre webinar examined how the pandemic created a dual challenge for global health:

– MISUSE: 35-75% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients received antibiotics despite low bacterial co-infection rates.

– ACCESS BARRIERS: The pandemic disrupted supply chains and healthcare access, limiting antimicrobial availability in many regions.

This paradox—overuse alongside access challenges—must inform future pandemic preparedness.

Our experts call for:

– Integrating antimicrobial stewardship into emergency response

– AMS frameworks must be established BEFORE health emergencies

– Strengthening surveillance systems and diagnostic capacity

– Ensuring sustainable and equitable access to antimicrobials

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SC Statement – NAM Health Ministers Meeting, May 2025

Statement of the Executive Director of the South Centre, Dr. Carlos Correa, at the NAM Health Ministers’ Meeting on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly (May 19-27, 2025)

The decisions to be made at the 78th World Health Assembly will have direct implications not only for national health systems, but also for the very architecture of international cooperation in health. Read the statement by the Executive Director of the South Centre, Dr. Carlos Correa, at the NAM Health Ministers’ Meeting on the sidelines of the 78th WHA.

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SC Statement to INB13, 7 April 2025

South Centre Statement to the Resumed Thirteenth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to Draft and Negotiate a WHO Convention, Agreement or Other International Instrument of Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response

7 April 2025

Negotiations resume for a WHO pandemic agreement, aiming to finalise the text in 5 days. Will Member States show the needed leadership and will to deliver an impactful outcome with equity at the core?

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South Centre Statement – WHA77, 27 May 2024

Statement of the South Centre to the 77th WHA

Agenda Item 3

A critical week for global health with the 77th session of the World Health Assembly. For decision, the future of the pandemic instrument and IHR amendment negotiations.

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Policy Brief 128, 25 April 2024

The WHO Intergovernmental Negotiating Body process and the revised draft of the WHO Pandemic Agreement (A/INB/9R/3)

by Nirmalya Syam & Viviana Muñoz Tellez

This Policy Brief considers the negotiating process conducted so far by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) for an instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the World Health Organization (WHO), and some aspects of the draft text for the Resumed Ninth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB9R), as well as of the draft proposed resolution for consideration by the World Health Assembly in May 2024. The Policy Brief provides recommendations to assist member States in their negotiations during the INB9R to be held from April 29 to 10 May 2024.

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