Pandemic Agreement - the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System explainer

The world has adopted a Pandemic Treaty to prevent future health emergencies and avoid the inequities of COVID-19. But a core piece is still unresolved: the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System (PABS), which would govern how pathogens and sequence data are shared and how benefits like vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics are distributed.

Developing countries want guarantees of equity, while wealthier countries defend the status quo and risk enabling biopiracy. This explainer, a collaboration among PSI, Third World Network (TWN), and the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2), breaks down the battle over PABS, the heart of the agreement. Talks resume on 23 March, testing whether the world learned the pandemic’s lesson. Read more

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