Newsletter Edition #164 [Treaty Talks]
Readers,
In this edition, we bring you a quick primer ahead of the forthcoming negotiations on the Pathogen Access Benefits Sharing system at the WHO in Geneva next week.
In addition, you will also find views of some negotiators as articulated at a recent discussion on the PABS system. We believe these offer indications on how delegations are thinking about conceptual, and tricky issues in these negotiations. We hope you find today's edition useful.
More from us in the coming days. We will be onsite at the WHO to track how the discussions are simmering this month.
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Cheers.
Priti
Priti Patnaik, Founder & Publisher, Geneva Health Files
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Presenting our weekly in-depth analysis on global health that captures the big picture and the nuances like no one else does. This is an exclusive edition for our subscribers.
I. GHF ANALYSIS
PABS Primer: The State of Play for the July Negotiations at The WHO
By Priti Patnaik
In this update we provide our readers with information on the state of play in these discussions since the last formal negotiations in early May 2026. We spoke with a cross section of delegations over the last few weeks.
We will soon be following up with a separate, detailed story on the implications of, and the questions raised by, the current Ebola emergency on these negotiations.
What to expect in the July Negotiations:
- Countries will meet early next week beginning July 6, 2026 for the Seventh meeting of the open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement to negotiate the Pathogen Access Benefits Sharing System - an annex to the main agreement.
- Recall that countries had sought additional time in May 2026 to conclude negotiations on the PABS system. (See our story from early May: Countries Negotiate More Time, Ward Off Pressure to Rush Consensus on the WHO Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing System)
- Since then, Ebola was declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, at the cusp of the World Health Assembly. It has since claimed more than 400 lives and upward of 1400 confirmed cases as per early July 2026.
- Subsequently, countries also made clear statements at the World Health Assembly underscoring their commitments to these negotiations.
- In early June, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO DG urged the G7, G20, BRICS, among others to finalize the PABS annex.
- There are some calls for concluding these negotiations by December 2026. It does not appear that this is a majority view.
- Countries have had bilateral consultations, and also had a round of informal discussions in late June 2026 ahead of these formal negotiations.
