/Maybaum
Berlin/Geneva – Negotiations on a global agreement on the pandemic continue. The 194 member states of the World Health Organization negotiate at regular intervals (WHO) other parts of the contract for which agreement has not yet been reached.
The International Negotiating Body (INB), composed of all WHO member states, met in mid-July and, according to a report by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), an interactive expert dialogue and informal discussions on this topic will take place in early September.
The WHO negotiating body is also expected to meet in September and November to advance negotiations. A special WHO meeting in December is also being considered, the report says. The aim is to reach a unified agreement by next month at the latest. World Health Assembly (WHA) to be completed in May 2025.
The WHO international community originally set the goal of adopting a corresponding pandemic treaty at this year’s World Health Assembly in late May. But it was clear from the outset that there were major differences between states in the idea of such an agreement.
There were differences, especially between the Global South and the Global North, regarding how patent protection was handled. The Global South called for better distribution mechanisms to better deliver vaccines or medicines to poorer countries in emergency situations. In this context, the Global North warned against a weakening of property rights. Lauterbach also mentioned such a project. “not very promising”.
Two areas, patent protection and the One Health approach, were therefore removed from the major draft contract in April. should be negotiated later.
An agreement will be necessary in all areas that have not yet been able to reach a consensus, explained a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) dem German medical journal. “They include (partial) aspects of prevention and One Health (articles 4 and 5), technology transfer (article 11), access and benefit sharing mechanism (PABS, article 12) and financing (article 20).”
Voting underway on German position
The federal government’s position on individual topics, such as pandemic prevention and PABS, is continuously coordinated within the department, depending on future developments, the spokesperson said. The PABS system, coordinated by WHO, is intended to enable rapid sharing of information and materials and ensure equitable access to pandemic-related medical products.
“The federal government continues to work to improve prevention and preparedness for a pandemic, in particular by strengthening the One Health approach and modern surveillance systems for early warning and initiation of targeted measures,” the BMG spokesperson continued.
German medical journal printout
aerzteblatt.de
It is therefore important for the Federal Government that global access to medical countermeasures such as vaccines is improved through the establishment of a voluntary and innovation-friendly benefit-sharing mechanism. “Among other things, emphasis is placed on ensuring the rapid sharing of pathogen and genetic sequence data in order to enable the timely production of life-saving countermeasures in the event of a pandemic.”
EU Commission on guard during WHO consultations
The BMG spokesperson explained that the European Commission is leading the negotiations for the 27 EU accessions. The German delegation, consisting of representatives from the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Foreign Office, will work closely together in the negotiations, while safeguarding German positions and interests, and will work towards a successful conclusion of the process.
At this year’s World Health Assembly, the international community only agreed on the basic principles of a financial coordination mechanism that aims to identify financing needs and better enable voluntary contributions. The aim is to enable more timely, predictable and sustainable fundraising in the event of a pandemic. This was achieved through the update of the International Health Regulations (IHR). © cmk/aerzteblatt.de