“Get this done” – and if you disagree, don’t block consensus, was the heartfelt plea made by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyessus to member states negotiating a pandemic agreement on Friday (3 May).
Tedros was addressing the ‘stocktake’ in the middle of the final 10-day meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB), and it was clear that member states were nowhere close to the finish.
A crucial stocktake of the state-of-play of the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic agreement talks on Friday afternoon (3 May) will determine the way forward for the final five days’ negotiations.
But progress has been slow in the past four days, according to reports – with differing opinions about whether a skeleton agreement can or even should be nailed down in time for the World Health Assembly (WHA) at the end of the month – or whether it should be deferred for another year.
An array of civil society organisations wrote to WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyessus last week expressing concern that the Bureau co-chairs of the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) are pushing hard for countries to adopt an agreement that “perpetuates the status quo, entrenching discretionary, voluntary measures and maintaining inequitable access as the norm for addressing PPPR” [pandemic preparedness, prevention and response].
The United States on 26 April appears to have adopted a “diversionary” stance on Colombia’s proposal for a comprehensive review of the implementation of the World Trade Organization’s controversial TRIPS Agreement, saying that it is ready to accommodate the issues as a review of the domestic implementation of the Agreement, which is contrary to the mandate, said people familiar with the development.
At the WTO’s TRIPS Council meeting that concluded on 26 April, the US position seemed like skirting the main issue of a comprehensive review of the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, which is supported by many developing countries, said people familiar with the discussions.
On the second day of the resumed session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the pandemic instrument two Working Groups started text-based negotiations on Articles 4, 10, 14 and 17.
The resumed session 9th INB session started on 29 April in hybrid mode at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Currently there are three working groups focusing on the following articles.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic laid bare the vulnerabilities and inequities engrained in economic and social systems in many countries. This pandemic exposed significant inequalities in access to life-saving vaccines and other medical countermeasures because of insufficient and geographically limited production capacity, economic imbalances and export restrictions, among other factors.1 High-risk populations in lower-income countries – including older people, health workers and people with comorbidities – received vaccines long after lower-risk populations in higher-income countries.
n April 11, 2024, Moderna announced that it had paused a $200 million plan to build a vaccine production plant in Kenya. Given little demand for COVID vaccines in Africa, the plans are unlikely to be resurrected.
This is a far cry from two years earlier, when the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company announced a $500 million investment in the Kenyan site to supply Africa with as many as 500 million doses per year of its mRNA vaccines. Although the initial plan was to start production in early 2023, the timeline and total investment was scaled back as demand for vaccines faded. In its cancellation announcement, Moderna stated that demand in Africa "is insufficient to support the viability of the factory planned in Kenya."
At the mid-point of the 2030 target for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is off track (1). According to the latest data, at least 4.5 billion people — more than half of the world’s population — are not fully covered by essential health services (2). Financial protection is also deteriorating, with two billion people experiencing financial hardship due to out-of-pocket health costs (2). People in vulnerable and marginalized situations, particularly those living in low- and middle-income countries, are affected most severely (3).
UHC2030’s 2024–2027 Strategic Framework describes how UHC2030 operates and adds value, now, on the path towards the next UN high-level meeting on UHC in 2027, and in the last stretch before the 2030 milestone for the SDGs.
The resumed meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the pandemic instrument has initiated negotiations in a working group and other informal discussion to push for consensus.
A working group was constituted to discuss Articles 4 and 5 i.e. on pandemic prevention and surveillance. Further, Germany has convened an informal meeting to discuss issues around Article 7 dealing with health and care workforce.
TWN reports the individual positions of some countries in key discussions regarding Articles 4 and 5. Africa & Bangladesh championed equity, while UK & EU drove the discussions on surveillance & One Health.
I had a longer Member State briefing than expected this morning. What I suggest to do now is to share one or two latest developments on the ground, but also to share with you some of the messages I have shared with the Member States and also to comment on the review, Catherine Colonna’s report, and maybe also a little update on the OIOS report.
More
