Hosts to the biggest pharmaceutical companies, the European Union and the U.S., drew four African countries into an exclusive closed-door informal meeting on May 3, in a bid to bridge positions on the proposed mechanism on Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing [PABS] – a cornerstone to the new Pandemic Agreement under negotiation at World Health Organization, diplomatic sources and experts familiar with the development said.
The African countries invited to the meeting reportedly include Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa. Sources said that this was an invitation-only meeting, suggesting that not all countries were aware of it, and were not a part of such a meeting that took place along the sidelines of the on-going meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body currently underway till May 10th.
(By the time this story went to print, no responses were received to our queries sent on Sunday evening to all five countries and the EU, seeking more information on the meeting. We will update this story if we receive any responses subsequently.)
We reported last week that the EU was engaging with the Africa Group on the toughest issues in these negotiations including on technology transfer, One Health, PABS and financing.