The United States (US) aims to compel countries that receive its aid to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to share all information about “pathogens with epidemic potential” in exchange. This is according to a US government document, the “PEPFAR [US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) template”, seen by Health Policy […] Continue reading ->
“Inadequate” and “unbalanced” were some of the complaints levelled against the first draft of a Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system when World Health Organization (WHO) member states met for text-based negotiations in Geneva on Monday. Once agreed, the PABS system will be an annex to the Pandemic Agreement, but several member states at the Intergovernmental […] Continue reading ->
Member states start text-based negotiations next week on the final outstanding piece of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system. They will have had nine days to consider the seven-page first draft of the PABS system, which was distributed late Friday (24 October) by the administration Bureau […] Continue reading ->
There is an urgent need for a more comprehensive pandemic risk monitoring system that tracks threats and preparedness in real time, according to the WHO-hosted Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, in a report launched at the World Health Summit. This followed the release of a new World Health Organization data documenting the sharp global rise in […] Continue reading ->
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 ->