Key insights
- WHO extends pathogen-sharing talks, delaying the pandemic treaty, raising concerns about preparedness for future pandemics. Failure to agree on pathogen access and benefit-sharing (PABS) could hinder the accord's effectiveness. This news introduces uncertainty into global health governance, potentially impacting pharmaceutical companies and healthcare systems, but its direct influence on US equities is limited.
Investing.com -- World Health Organization member states announced Friday they have extended negotiations on pathogen-sharing rules, raising uncertainty about when the pandemic treaty adopted in May 2025 can take effect.
The discussions center on a system designed to ensure countries rapidly share pathogens that could trigger pandemics while securing fair access to resulting vaccines, tests and treatments.
The Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing annex governs how countries share data and samples of pathogens posing public health risks and aims to ensure equitable access to vaccines and treatments.
The pandemic accord cannot take effect without agreement on PABS. The accord was created to help the world respond more effectively to future pandemics following COVID-19.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said progress had been made but called on countries to continue working with urgency, stating the next pandemic was "a matter of when, not if."
The outcome will be presented to the World Health Assembly later in May.
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