PABS Annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement: IGWG7 brings competing System Models on the Table

On 22 May 2026, the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA) decided to extend the negotiations on the PABS Annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement by one year. The decision followed a long series of intensive negotiating rounds in which persistent disagreements over central elements of the system had allowed only cautious progress. The Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) tasked with developing the PABS Annex now has until the Eightieth World Health Assembly in May 2027 to bridge the remaining differences and bring the Annex to a conclusion acceptable to all parties.
 

The seventh formal session of the IGWG, held in Geneva from 6 to 17 July, marked the beginning of this extended phase of negotiations. Discussions were based on an overview of the current state of discussions previously presented by the World Health Organization (WHO), which also consolidated the outcomes of the hybrid informal consultations held from 22 to 26 June and on 29 June and 3 July. In addition, two concrete proposals were on the table for structuring access to pathogen materials and sequence information and the associated sharing of benefits: a so-called Federated Model submitted by the Africa Group and a Hybrid Model proposed by the European Union. Both envisage a WHO-coordinated laboratory network, the inclusion of existing recognized sequence databases and legally binding PABS contracts. They differ fundamentally, however, in how existing and newly generated sequence information would be integrated into the PABS architecture, where pathogen materials and data should be held, under what conditions they may be shared, and at what point benefit-sharing obligations should arise. Although the IGWG did not agree on either model during its seventh session, the presentation of the two proposals marked an important step towards more concrete negotiating texts and created a basis for further operational convergence.

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