Transactional U.S. Bilateral Contracts Seeking Biological Data Complicates Multilateral Negotiations on Pathogen Access & Benefit Sharing; Unlocking PABS Puzzle Could Hinge on Conditional Access
Newsletter Edition #139 [Treaty Talks]
Hi,
U.S. foreign and trade policy continue to have disproportionate impact on the world. The effect of blunt foreign aid cuts that sliced through health systems and communities are being felt acutely, and will have implications for years to come.
The proposed bilateral efforts for securing access to data and information on pathogens from Africa, in exchange for aid, will have an impact on the massive exercise on Pandemic Preparedness Prevention and Response, that has been undertaken in Geneva over the last four years. In this edition, we unpack this for you.
Read our story today to understand this new geopolitical complexity now hangs over an already political and technical negotiations on the Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing System at WHO.
We capture negotiation dynamics, and also bring you expert comments on options before African countries wrt U.S. bilateral contracts and the PABS discussions.
This has been a challenging story to write on multiple levels (apart from the fact that it was carefully crafted on a sunny Sunday!). We are trying to keep up with a fast-moving dynamic here. Consider supporting our efforts during this crucial period.
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Gratitude to our subscribers who help us contribute to greater accountability in global health.
More later.
Best,
Priti
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I. IGWG UPDATE
Transactional U.S. Bilateral Contracts Seeking Biological Data Complicates Multilateral Negotiations on Pathogen Access & Benefit Sharing; Unlocking PABS Puzzle Could Hinge on Conditional Access [IGWG update]
Disruption to a complex system may not be a bad thing, because there could be unintended and unpredictable consequences. WHO member states will find out soon enough.
The negotiations towards a new Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing (PABS) System, a first such multilateral mechanism in global health that seeks to regulate the access to information and the sharing of medical products and other benefits – just got more complex.
We reported last week, that the U.S. is rolling out bilateral contracts seeking data and information on pathogens from developing countries, in return for aid. Preliminary reactions from several delegations suggest that this development could introduce uncertainty and have an impact on the PABS negotiations at WHO.
The contrast cannot be starker. The U.S. is continuing to pursue its unilateral approach of elevating bilateral deals that seek to put American interests higher on the back of its aid calculus. At WHO, countries are trying to work on a multilateral rules-based system that will govern the access to pathogen information, and the sharing of benefits.
This story has two parts. We first discuss emerging dynamics in the negotiations from the formal meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body that took place last week. In the second part, we try to parse through the potential impact of the latest American foreign policy salvo on these negotiations.
We were onsite throughout the week trying to understand the pulse of these discussions, by talking to negotiators and experts on the sidelines of the meeting.
