After three years of intense negotiations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday adopted the world’s first pandemic agreement during the ongoing annual meeting of the inter-governmental body. The adoption came after the approval by vote a day ago by member state delegations — there were 124 votes in favour, none against and 11 abstentions.
The agreement is historic because it sets out principles for better international coordination to strengthen the global health architecture for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. It hopes to ensure equitable and timely access to diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics — something that was not seen during the Covid-19 pandemic where richer countries had surplus vaccines and others struggled to get enough for their population.
A victory for public health
“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…. The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration and commitment of our member states to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,” said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Intergovernmental Negotiation Body — which was behind creating the draft agreement through consensus — was set up in December 2021 following the devastating second wave of the pandemic during the second-ever special session of the World Health Assembly. The draft was finalised in April this year after 13 rounds of meetings, nine of which had to be extended.
Why did the treaty take so much time?
There were several contentious issues such as intellectual property rights and sharing of pathogens. In its current form, the Agreement establishes a pathogen access and benefit-sharing system with a coordinating financial mechanism. It will help countries take concrete measures to strengthen preparedness and resilience of health systems as well as pandemic prevention, including through the One Health approach that looks at infections in humans, animals and plants together.
Importantly, it will work on building geographically diverse research and development capacity as well as facilitate technology, knowledge and skill transfer for production of pandemic-related health products. During the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines were developed and manufactured in a handful of countries, leading to problems of access.
Sovereign decisions
One of the concerns with the Agreement was preserving the sovereignty of countries to take decisions even amidst a pandemic. The Agreement says: “Nothing… shall be interpreted as providing the Secretariat of the World Health Organisation, including the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, any authority to direct, order, alter or otherwise prescribe the national and/or domestic law, as appropriate, or policies of any Party, or to mandate or otherwise impose any requirements that Parties take specific actions, such as ban or accept travellers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures or implement lockdowns.”
US is absent
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Since the US withdrew from the WHO in January, funding for implementation might get affected. It also means that US pharma majors are under no compulsion to share information.
