WHO member states adopt pandemic agreement

Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) voted to adopt the world’s first Pandemic Agreement, that boosts global collaboration as part of the response to future pandemics.

The agreement is the result of more than three years of intense negotiations, officials said, that came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact globally. The decision by the 78th World Health Assembly was driven, officials said, by the goal of making the world safer during future pandemic crises

“The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration and commitment of our Member States to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said. “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.”

During an assembly of the World Health Assembly, governments adopted the pandemic agreement by a vote of 124 in favor, 0 objections and 11 abstentions. The agreement sets out the principles, approaches and tools for international coordination that officials said will strengthen the “global health architecture” for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

“Starting during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments from all corners of the world acted with great purpose, dedication and urgency, and in doing so exercising their national sovereignty, to negotiate the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement that has been adopted today,” Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, Secretary of the Philippines Department of Health, and President of this year’s World Health Assembly, said. “Now that the Agreement has been brought to life, we must all act with the same urgency to implement its critical elements, including systems to ensure equitable access to life-saving pandemic-related health products. As COVID was a once-in-a-lifetime emergency, the WHO Pandemic Agreement offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build on lessons learned from that crisis and ensure people worldwide are better protected if a future pandemic emerges.”

According to the Agreement, pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in the PABS system will play a key role in equitable and timely access to pandemic-related health products by making available to WHO “rapid access targeting 20% of their real time production of safe, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for the pathogen causing the pandemic emergency.” The distribution of these products to countries will be carried out on the basis of public health risk and need, with particular attention to the needs of developing countries.