Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) has been a mainstay of international law for more than 30 years, but it is hard to find concrete examples of it resulting in fair and equitable outcomes.
More specifically, its use in global health via the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework remains untested because there has not been an influenza pandemic since it entered into force in 2011 – this is the main trigger for the sharing of benefits in the form of vaccines and other medical countermeasures. We have repeatedly argued that there are very good reasons to think it will fail if and when it is called upon to deliver equitable access to countermeasures to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) during a pandemic. Despite this uncertainty, the negotiations for a Pandemic Agreement have used the PIP Framework as a model to deliver equitable benefit-sharing during future pandemics.