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WHO talks on pathogen sharing fail again

3 min read

17:07UTC

WHO's working group closed its eighth session in Geneva on 18 September without agreeing the annex on sharing pathogen samples, its second failure in a row.

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Key takeaway

The WHO Pandemic Agreement stays closed for signature until governments agree the pathogen-sharing annex.

The eighth session of the World Health Organization's Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) closed in Geneva on 18 September without an agreed text for the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex⁠¹. IGWG7 also ended without a text on 17 July. WHO's release says negotiations "advanced" but names no agreed provision. Co-chair Tovar da Silva Nunes of Brazil said member states had "once again demonstrated their commitment to completing the PABS annex".

The annex sets how countries share virus samples and genetic sequences, and what they receive in return, such as vaccine doses. The WHO Pandemic Agreement, adopted in May 2025, cannot open for signature until the annex is adopted, so it binds no government yet.

World leaders approved a political declaration at the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on pandemics in New York on 25 September⁠². WHO's account repeats the May 2027 deadline for adopting the annex that the World Health Assembly (WHO's annual meeting of all member states) set in May. That leaves little room for the earlier special session in 2026 that the IGWG release still lists as an option. In practice, a pathogen that emerges before then will be shared without the agreement's benefit-sharing rules.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

When a new virus appears, scientists need samples and its genetic code fast to make tests and vaccines. Poorer countries that share samples have often been last in line for the vaccines that result. WHO members agreed a Pandemic Treaty in 2025, but left one key part unfinished: the rules on sharing samples and what countries get in return. Talks on that part failed to agree a text in July and again in September. Until that part is agreed, no government can sign the 2025 treaty. World leaders backed a declaration at the UN in September, but it does not change that.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The annex tries to settle a trade that COVID-19 exposed. Countries that sequenced new variants first, such as South Africa in 2021, faced travel bans and waited for vaccines, so they now want guaranteed returns before sharing.

Industry and many high-income governments want samples and sequences to flow freely and fast, with benefit-sharing kept voluntary. A federated model of national labs gives source countries more control; a central database gives faster access.

The treaty's structure locks this in. The WHO Pandemic Agreement was adopted in May 2025 but cannot open for signature until the annex exists, so every other provision waits on this one dispute.

What could happen next?

Consequence
No IGWG9 date was announced, so the May 2027 World Health Assembly is the realistic adoption point.
Medium term · Assessed
Risk
A pathogen that emerges before 2027 would be shared under ad hoc and bilateral rules.
Medium term · Assessed
Precedent
The influenza framework took four years; PABS talks risk a similar timescale.
Long term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: In late 2006 Indonesia stopped sharing H5N1 bird flu samples with WHO, arguing that vaccines made from them were priced beyond its reach. The dispute produced the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework only in May 2011, after four years of talks.

Counter-parallel: The Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources entered into force in October 2014 with binding benefit-sharing, but each country wrote its own permit rules. Researchers have since reported slower pathogen sample sharing under it, a warning that a binding deal can still slow outbreak science.

WHO's release puts COVID-19's cost at more than 20 million excess deaths and over US$10 trillion in lost output between 2020 and 2023. Those figures are the argument both sides use: speed of access for one side, fairness of returns for the other.

For vaccine makers, a benefit-sharing rule tied to product registration would mean setting aside a share of output or revenue for WHO distribution, a cost they would price into contracts.

Consensus view: Co-chair Tovar da Silva Nunes of Brazil said member states had 'once again demonstrated their commitment', and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus framed the talks as keeping a post-COVID promise. WHO's line holds that the text is converging and needs time, not a new approach.

Counter-view: The split at the July session was structural: the Africa Group, speaking through Algeria, backed a federated model of national laboratories, while the European Union and other industrialised states backed a hybrid with central databases. Knowledge Ecology International's draft tied benefit-sharing to product registration, a condition drug makers oppose, so the gap is over who controls the data, not over drafting.

Key tension: Whether richer states will accept binding obligations to share vaccines in return for samples, or whether the annex will settle for voluntary pledges.

First Reported In

Update #14 · River boat carries Ebola 1,000 km downriver

World Health Organization· 3 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

PABS annex slips a fourth deadline

IGWG8 closed without a text, the second session in a row after IGWG7 in July.

Occurred 17 Jul 2026

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WHO defers vaccine-sharing pact to 2027

WHA79's May deferral set the May 2027 date that the UNGA declaration restated.

Occurred 19 May 2026

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This Event

WHO talks on pathogen sharing fail again

Without the annex the WHO Pandemic Agreement cannot open for signature, so it binds no government.

Led to

UN adopts a declaration on pandemics

With IGWG8 ending without annex text, WHO now sends the annex to the World Health Assembly in May 2027 or a special session.

Occurred 12 Oct 2026

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Different Perspectives

Pan American Health Organization

PAHO warned on 20 October that El Niño is set to intensify as the dengue season begins, and issued a regional screwworm alert on 16 October. It wants veterinary and human health workers reporting into one surveillance system.

UK Health Security Agency

UKHSA links three Salmonella Enteritidis clusters to imported eggs and has two large importers under investigation without naming either. Its sequencing led the Food Standards Agency to recall eggs from Kyiv producer Yasensvit.

ECDC

ECDC says Europe's West Nile season affected a broader area than any before and calls Germany's first local Sindbis virus case not unexpected, since the virus was already found in German mosquitoes and birds. It cautions that missing clade data limit how far Europe's clade I mpox rise can be read.

Ghana Ministry of Health

Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh declared a yellow fever outbreak in the Upper West Region after a Dakar laboratory confirmed three cases, all of whom died. Ghana plans an emergency vaccination campaign in three districts this month.

Government of Côte d'Ivoire

Spokesperson Amadou Coulibaly reported 23 yellow fever cases and 11 deaths in Bounkani on 14 October and said the country holds more than 400,000 vaccine doses. He did not say how many cases were laboratory-confirmed, which leaves the outbreak's true size unclear.

World Health Organization

WHO says no cause has been found for the Irkutsk technician's death and a laboratory-associated exposure cannot be fully excluded. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged states to finish the pathogen-sharing annex that holds the Pandemic Agreement back from signature.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.