Regulating pharmaceutical companies that manufacture essential health products during a public health emergency is a key flashpoint between developed and developing countries ahead of the final round of talks on the pandemic agreement. This is evident in some of the 17 submissions made to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Working Group (IGWG), which is coordinating the final […] Continue reading ->
China has suggested that the access pharmaceutical manufacturers get to information about dangerous pathogens should be “contingent” on their home country being a party to the Pandemic Agreement recently adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA). This will encourage World Health Organization (WHO) member states to ratify the agreement in their respective countries, but it […] Continue reading ->
As the world observes World Zoonoses Day, it’s important to remember that human health is intimately tied to the health of animals, wild and domesticated.  Five years after COVID-19, the world remains alert to health threats that can cross over from animals to people.  Alongside growing concerns over high-profile spillovers like avian influenza, the silent […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced his new team of 36 directors at headquarters on Tuesday, according to an internal message to WHO staff, seen by Health Policy Watch. Nine of the appointments, including key positions heading the Departments of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, and the newly-combined Department of Environment, […] Continue reading ->
A four year WHO-sponsored investigation of the origins of the COVID pandemic by an international group of experts has concluded that “most scientific data and accessible published scientific evidence” support the hypothesis that the novel SARS-CoV2 virus first entered the human population either directly from virus-carrying bats, or from bats to humans via intermediate hosts.   […] Continue reading ->
Mistrust undermined the pandemic agreement talks – but, ironically, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) galvanised member states to reach agreement, according to Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chair of the talks. “There was a lack of trust. That means that when member states wanted to make a proposal, sometimes it created suspicion […] Continue reading ->