Newsletter Edition #151 [Treaty Talks]
Readers,
Developing countries have been pushing for the access to technology to make medical products, to better prepare for, and respond to health emergencies. This has been the unfinished business in international development, and in global health for decades.
That unresolved fight, where holders of technologies have been largely reluctant to contribute to a diversification of manufacturing capacities, has reared its head again. We reported last month, that the tech transfer fight is definitely back in the room, with potentially similar consequences as we saw during the negotiations on the Pandemic Agreement last year.
Next week, countries come together for potentially the final round of talks on the Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing System at the WHO in Geneva. Developing countries are seeking tech transfer and licensing as obligatory benefits in such a system.
Are there other ways to tackle this ostensibly intractable problem? In today's edition, influential global health scholar, Suerie Moon, creatively suggests that if law cannot make headway, financing could do the trick on enabling technology transfer. She also draws up ways to find allocations for such funds.
We are grateful to her, for sharing her expertise with our readers ahead of the PABS negotiations next week.
(This is a complex, multi-layered topic. We are aware of the limits, difficulties, and the politics in making financing available for tech transfer efforts including at the WHO mRNA hub, for example. A conversation for another day.)
As usual, we will be tracking negotiations onsite next week. Count on us for accurate, nuanced and thorough reporting. More from us in the coming days.
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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.
Will Mandatory Financing Help Buy Technology Transfer? Considerations for the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing Negotiations
By Suerie Moon
Moon is Co-Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre and Professor of Practice, International Relations and Political Science.
This guest essay for Geneva Health Files updates and adapts the article “Could money grease the wheels of compromise on PABS?” originally published by the Global Health Centre in January 2026.
Negotiations over the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System must be completed to open the Pandemic Agreement for signature, but are getting harder. A tough sticking point – as it has been for decades in international politics – is technology transfer and intellectual property. In an ideal world, enlightened self-interest would persuade countries and companies that hold technology for pandemic products to share it widely. After all, enabling enough production to protect all people would help prevent outbreaks from becoming pandemics in the first place, and control them faster when they do occur.
But technology has become a strategic asset over which states compete vigorously. This logic of competition is perhaps most visible for artificial intelligence (AI), where countries are racing to secure their positions. But it also applies to technologies that promise biosecurity and health sovereignty – vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTDs) for potential pandemics. And in the current political context with countries increasingly concerned about their own security and economic prospects, sharing technology has become a tough sell.