This is a bumper week for pandemic negotiations – the last formal set for the year – with meetings of both the World Health Organization’s (WHO) intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) and the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR). The INB, which is negotiating a pandemic agreement, meets until Wednesday, while the […] Continue reading ->
Time-bound waivers of intellectual property (IP) rights and benefits for countries that share information about threatening pathogens are some of the key components of the draft pandemic accord  sent to World Health Organization (WHO) member states by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on Monday. These two issues have been major bones of contention in negotiations and […] Continue reading ->
Negotiations at the World Health Organisation (WHO) about how to amend the International Health Regulations (IHR) to make them fit to tackle the next pandemic will be extended until as far as May 2024. This was resolved at the Working Group on the IHR amendments, which ended on Friday following a week-long meeting with a […] Continue reading ->
It’s likely to be a mad sprint to submit amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) by the World Health Assembly (WHA) next May, according to the working group overseeing this process, which is meeting for the fifth time this week. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is expected to release a new draft of the pandemic […] Continue reading ->
German Ministers urge more investment in the Pandemic Fund and universal health coverage at a high-level pandemic preparedness meeting  Even if vaccines and medicines are developed at record speed to address the next ominous global pathogen, they cannot prevent a pandemic without strong health systems to deliver them, stressed politicians and health leaders at a […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK – A long-awaited political declaration by United Nations (UN) member states on more effective pandemic preparedness and response was approved at a High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Wednesday – without the anticipated political objections raised by 11 member states including Russia in a letter to the global body earlier in the week. The declaration […] Continue reading ->
Pharmaceutical giant Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and generic manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII) charged the South African government more than the European Union for COVID-19 vaccines – and South Africa assumed all the risk in ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ contracts with Pfizer, J&J and SII. This is according to an analysis of the contracts led by Health […] Continue reading ->