Pandemic pact remains work in progress

The world pandemic agreement, which is under negotiation from the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, remains a work in progress, and may be a long way off still. It is a new global agreement conceived with the aim of protecting the world from inevitable future pandemic emergencies and ensuring that the world is better prepared for them. The aim is to “strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” with “equity as the goal and outcome”. The World Health Assembly (WHA), which was held in Geneva recently, has decided to continue the negotiations among 194 countries which are on board. It has agreed to work on the format and the process of the agreement and finalise it by next year. Though the Inter-Governmental Negotiating Body (INB) has done some spade work, much more remains to be done. 

The draft negotiating text covers several issues, including pathogen surveillance, supply chain and logistics, tech transfer to support the production of vaccines, tests and treatments, and waivers of intellectual property (IP) rights. Countries should commit to better managing antimicrobial resistance, strengthening their health systems and making progress toward universal health coverage. The text provides for equitable access to medical products, technology transfer and benefit-sharing. There is a proposal to set up a Conference of Parties (COP) to oversee the implementation of the agreement. These are all ideal elements of an international treaty based on equity, equality of countries, and the need to fight a common threat together. They are based on the experience of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. One reason for the prolongation of the pandemic was the unequal fight against it. The poor countries were not equipped with vaccines, facilities and other requirements as the richer countries were. The deal aims to bridge that gap in the event of another pandemic. 

While developing countries have generally endorsed the text, developed countries have several issues with it. The objections are mainly about financing and intellectual property rights. An important area of disagreement is the sharing of pathogens and their genetic codes. Developing countries are unwilling to share such data unless they get access to benefits derived from research. A proposal to address this issue is to share the data in return for providing 10% of their products free of charge and 10% at not-for-profit prices. There are many other issues also that need to be resolved. There is a risk of diluting the provisions of the text in order to reach a consensus. The whole world should work together to reach a good agreement, because the threat it aims to tackle is for the entire world.