The Medical Countermeasures Platform that is being discussed by WHO and partners, has emerged clearly in the draft text of the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, for the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting in September 2023.
In the latest version of the text, dated June 20th, seen by Geneva Health Files, there have been several references to the medical countermeasures platform. Of course, this should not be surprising given that the idea for such a platform has steadily moved this year through WHO, the G7, the G20, the Johannesburg processes and now in New York.
The concern among countries continues to be the implications of having discussions on this, outside of the on-going negotiations at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body and at the Working Group on the amendments to the International Health Regulations. Both of these two-track negotiations are discussions matters of ensuring access to medical countermeasures, research and development, supply chain and other issues that are also ostensibly being discussed in a proposed MCMs platform. (The UNGA-PPR text acknowledges both these processes.)
As we reported earlier, critics say that the platform as proposed now has several shortcomings including on matters of representation, inadequate consultations with countries, not effectively dealing with concerns on intellectual property, issues of vulnerability among groups among others.
The question is whether the discussions on this, in the context of the UNGA-PPR text, will address these concerns or will the New York process set the agenda for Geneva without tackling these pertinent issues.
This story looks at the references made to the MCMs platform in the current UNGA-PPR text, and the implications for negotiations in Geneva.