IGWG
WHO member-state body negotiating the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing annex.
The IGWG's eighth session ended in Geneva on 18 September 2026 with no agreed pathogen-sharing annex, its second failed round in a row; until the annex is adopted, due by May 2027, the WHO Pandemic Agreement cannot be signed.
Last refreshed: 4 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
With PABS deferred to 2027 and a live outbreak exposing the equity gap, what leverage does IGWG7 have that IGWG6 lacked?
Timeline for IGWG
Closed its eighth session without an agreed text
Pandemics and Biosecurity: WHO talks on pathogen sharing fail againClosed its seventh session without agreed annex text
Pandemics and Biosecurity: PABS annex slips a fourth deadlineOpened its seventh session in Geneva to negotiate the PABS annex
Pandemics and Biosecurity: PABS talks reopen under a deadlineUS widens Ebola ban to green-card holders
Pandemics and BiosecurityWHO defers vaccine-sharing pact to 2027
Pandemics and BiosecurityBackground
The Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) is the WHO member-state body set up by the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025 to finish the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex. The annex sets how countries share virus samples and genetic sequences, and what they receive in return, such as vaccine doses. The Pandemic Agreement was adopted without it, and it cannot open for signature until the annex is adopted. The IGWG took over from the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, which ran from 2022 to 2025.
All WHO member states take part, and the core split has barely moved. At IGWG7 in July 2026 the Africa Group backed a federated model of national and regional laboratories with strict access rules, while the European Union and other industrialised states backed a hybrid built on central databases. A Knowledge Ecology International draft tied benefit-sharing to product registration, a condition drug makers oppose.
The dispute predates the IGWG by almost two decades. Indonesia stopped sharing H5N1 samples with WHO in late 2006, and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework took until May 2011 to settle that fight for flu alone. The 2026 Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak showed the gap in practice: DR Congo shared sequence data in real time with no treaty guarantee of vaccines in return.
The IGWG keeps missing its deadlines
The group's resumed sixth session ended on 1 May 2026 with only an agreement to keep talking. On 19 May the World Health Assembly moved its Deadline to May 2027, with a special session as a fallback. IGWG7 then closed on 17 July with no text, the fourth deferral since the Pandemic Agreement's adoption, despite a 15 June letter from Lula and Tedros calling the date "a Deadline, not a milestone".
IGWG8 ran in Geneva from 14 to 18 September and also produced no text. Co-chair Tovar da Silva Nunes said member states had "once again demonstrated their commitment". WHO's release says talks "advanced" but names no agreed provision. A week later the UN General Assembly approved a political declaration on pandemics that restated the May 2027 date.