Pathogen Access And Benefits Sharing: The Fulcrum On Which Equity Objectives Rest?

Newsletter Edition #25 [Treaty Talks]

Hi,

As a house for interdisciplinary reporting, we are very pleased to bring you this edition that looks into some of the key issues in the access to pathogens and sharing of benefits debate in current global health negotiations.

This is a multilayered, multifaceted topic drawing from diverse legal regimes on from biodiversity to oceans. My colleague Nishant and I, bring you an analysis on the state of play. We will be following up on this in the coming months as countries flesh out provisions for a PABS system at WHO.

This has been a lot of fun, and a serious amount of work. Things will only get more dense and technical. Help us absorb costs of reporting on everything from travel, transcription, communication, chasing sources, childcare for late evenings and holidays, so that we bring you these discussions as they take shape.

Consider supporting our journalism that ensures nuance, detail, and accuracy. Readers paying for our work helps us meet our costs. Thank you for reading.

Finally, I have a request, if you really like a story, or disagree with our reporting, please drop me a line. Feedback is important for us and is an indicator of your engagement with our work. We also encourage readers to use the comments section.

Until later!

Best,

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com or genevahealthfiles@protonmail.com; Follow us on Twitter: @filesgeneva

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I. STORY OF THE WEEK

Pathogen Access And Benefits Sharing: The Fulcrum On Which Equity Objectives Rest?

Priti Patnaik & Nishant Sirohi

Pathogen access and benefits sharing will be a near-fulcrum around which concrete provisions to address equity objectives for future health emergencies could be realized.

New rules in global health on facilitating access to pathogens and the sharing of benefits will likely feature in both - a new Pandemic Accord and in the International Health Regulations.

The form this set of provisions could take is still not clear, with a range of options being discussed including a new dedicated multilateral mechanism to govern PABS applicable to both regimes; as an annex to the Pandemic Accord; as a separate set of rules under Article 23 of the WHO constitution modeled around the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework; and building on existing provisions in other legal instruments.

Irrespective of which form these rules take, the legal effect and the kinds of obligations these rules could result in, will be important in determining not just whether access to information on pathogens will be streamlined. It will have implications for guaranteed access to countermeasures in return for sharing information, promise of greater support for researchers and capacity building in weaker health systems among others.

This story looks at some of these options more closely as discussed also at an intersessional meeting on PABS organized by the INB bureau last month. Do note that some of the analysis is based on existing provisions suggested to the Zero Draft of the Pandemic Accord. A new Bureau’s Text of the Pandemic Accord is currently in the works, and is expected to be released on May 22, that might feature additional provisions on PABS.

Image Credit: Photo by Mikhail Nilov, Pexels