3. and 4.meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the PABS Annex of the Pandemic Agreement

Since its adoption on 20 May 2025, the Pandemic Agreement of the World Health Organization (WHO) has established a binding international framework for the prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics[1]. At its core, the Agreement links strategic health objectives to concrete implementation obligations, ranging from early warning, through research and development, to the distribution of effective countermeasures. In effect, it shifts the focus away from short-term, reactive crisis management towards dependable international cooperation with clearly agreed responsibilities.

Article 12 of the Pandemic Agreement sets out a multilateral WHO Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System. This system provides for the rapid, safe sharing of biological material and genetic sequence data (GSD) of pathogens with pandemic potential, and, on an equal footing, for the fair, equitable, and timely sharing of the resulting benefits. It also defines key terms and the scope of application, sets out modalities for sharing obligations, for example within a laboratory network, as well as contractual benefit-sharing arrangements, transparency requirements and administrative coordination by WHO and Member States. A central condition for its functionality is that all elements of the system enter into force jointly and simultaneously. For implementation, allocation and access clauses are essential, under which manufacturers must make a defined share of their real-time production available in a pandemic situation. The modalities of these obligations are to be set out through standardised contracts.

Only the adoption of the PABS Annex will allow the Pandemic Agreement to be transmitted to Member States for ratification. For the Agreement to be viable, definitions must be clarified, a coherent contractual architecture developed, and emergency clauses drafted in a manner that withstands judicial review at the national level while remaining applicable in real-world crises. To elaborate these operational provisions, the World Health Assembly (WHA) established an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG). The IGWG has been given a broad mandate to determine its own working methods, engage relevant stakeholders and prepare draft decisions for consideration by the future Conference of the Parties (COP). The Bureau of the IGWG is co-chaired by Brazil and the United Kingdom, with vice-chairs from Australia, Eswatini, Qatar, and Thailand.

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