The Intergovernmental Working Group on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (IGWG) is the WHO member-state negotiating body established by the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025 to conclude the legally binding Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement. It was created because the Pandemic Agreement was adopted with PABS unresolved; member states mandated the IGWG to finish what the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) could not between 2022 and 2025.

The IGWG's composition mirrors the INB: all WHO member states participate, with negotiations structured around the African Group, Asia-Pacific bloc, EU and high-income country groupings, and BRICS-aligned states. The core fault line (mandatory versus voluntary benefit-sharing, and the scope of intellectual property waiver obligations) has not shifted materially between the INB and IGWG phases. No country has publicly identified itself as the blocking party; WHO's post-session language consistently uses formulations such as 'differences will be overcome' without identifying a mechanism to break the deadlock.

The resumed 6th IGWG session concluded on 1 May 2026 without resolving PABS, producing agreement only to extend negotiations to a 7th session scheduled for 6-17 July 2026 . The 79th World Health Assembly (May 2026) formally authorised this extension and extended the negotiating mandate through mid-2027, with fallback provision for a special session if a text is ready earlier . The Bundibugyo outbreak has given IGWG7 concrete urgency: DRC shares sequence data in real time under no treaty obligation to receive vaccines in return, demonstrating live the equity failure the Agreement was designed to prevent .

IGWG7 closed in Geneva on 17 July 2026 without an agreed annex text, missing the Deadline Brazilian President Lula and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had set as "a Deadline, not a milestone" in a 15 June open letter to the G7, G20 and BRICS. Co-chairs Ambassador Tovar da Silva Nunes (Brazil) and Matthew Harpur steered a session that, for the first time, named the substantive dispute as two competing models rather than a single blocking party: the Africa Group's federated model of distributed national and regional laboratories against a hybrid model backed by the European Union and other industrialised states, built on more centralised infrastructure. WHO's own account described the text as "streamlined" on contractual arrangements, laboratory network structures and definitions of benefits, naming no blocking state. The session carried concrete urgency from the active Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, in which DRC shares sequence data in real time with no treaty obligation on the receiving end to guarantee vaccine access, a live version of the equity failure the annex is meant to fix. The group will reconvene as IGWG8 in Geneva on 14-18 September 2026, with formal adoption still targeted for WHA80 in May 2027.

Common Questions

Reference

What is the IGWG and what is it trying to negotiate?

The IGWG is the WHO member-state body mandated to conclude the PABS annex of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. PABS sets rules for pathogen sample-sharing and equitable distribution of resulting vaccines. Six sessions have failed to resolve the mandatory versus voluntary benefit-sharing impasse.Source: WHO

When is the next IGWG session on the pandemic treaty?

IGWG8 is scheduled for 14-18 September 2026 in Geneva, after IGWG7 closed on 17 July 2026 without agreement.Source: WHO

Why has the IGWG failed to resolve the PABS annex after seven sessions?

IGWG7 named the dispute as two competing models: the Africa Group's federated, distributed-laboratory approach against a hybrid, more centralised model backed by the EU and other industrialised states. Neither side moved.Source: WHO

When did the IGWG7 session on the WHO Pandemic Agreement end?

IGWG7 closed in Geneva on 17 July 2026 without agreed annex text, missing the Deadline President Lula and Director-General Tedros had set in a 15 June open letter.Source: WHO

What does the Ebola outbreak mean for IGWG negotiations?

DRC is sharing Bundibugyo sequence data in real time with no treaty-guaranteed vaccine access, making the PABS equity gap concrete. It gave IGWG7 urgency but did not resolve the underlying model dispute.Source: WHO/DRC

Source Material

WHO IGWG / INB Pandemic Agreement Negotiations

How the World Sees Them

African Group

African states regard each IGWG extension as further evidence that high-income countries are stalling. The Bundibugyo sequence-sharing gap (sequences shared, no vaccine access guaranteed) makes mandatory PABS politically urgent ahead of IGWG7.

WHO Secretariat

WHO frames extensions as process progress; the absence of a bridging text or mediating mechanism after six sessions signals institutional difficulty in breaking the deadlock through facilitation alone.

High-income countries

EU and US delegations accept further negotiations but resist mandatory benefit-sharing clauses, arguing voluntary mechanisms and advance-purchase commitments are sufficient and IP certainty drives pandemic vaccine R&D.