In February, WHO launched a design and consultation process for a platform to combat pandemics. The aim is to ensure that when a new health threat emerges, there will be a platform ready to coordinate access to lifesaving medical products, or what the global health community has dubbed “medical countermeasures.” … The goal of the WHO-led process on medical countermeasures is to have a prototype by April and an “interim working platform” by September, although those timelines can change. … In a draft working paper seen by Devex, dated May 18, the platform will consist of a steering group made up of 25 members, representing countries, international and regional organizations, civil society, and the private sector. The steering group will be constituency-based, although no details yet on who will be part of it and how that will be organized. WHO is proposed as the host of the secretariat, with staff seconded or loaned from other multilateral organizations. … The platform aims to work during a pandemic and interpandemic period, with more limited engagement during the latter. The document doesn’t specify which particular pathogens it will focus on, only saying those with “pandemic potential.” It plans to focus on “new and/or scarce” vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, but is flexible to add on more products “if needed.” It will prioritize support to low-income and lower-middle-income countries and “others that face access barriers.”… In the draft working paper, it says the platform “will take an end-to-end approach, covering the full medical countermeasures value chain, and will integrate with the wider emergency response ecosystem.” But some are worried the current draft doesn’t go far enough to address the injustices experienced by many communities during the COVID-19 emergency. … “We think that a proposal that is based on diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines without cross-cutting emphasis on key injustices that occurred in the COVID-19 pandemic is the same as the ACT-Accelerator. It's not going to work,” a source, who requested anonymity given the discussions are still ongoing, told Devex.
Devex