Pedro Villardi, PSI’s Global coordinator for Health Equity, delivered a strong statement on behalf of PSI, urging governments to put people and public health workers ahead of corporate profits in the PABS framework.

Thank you, Mr President,

Public Services International is a global trade union federation representing more than 15 million healthcare workers.

We are not discussing open science. If the countries now pushing for unrestricted access to pathogens, genetic sequences and information were concerned about that, the TRIPS waiver would have been approved without delay during the pandemic. Open access does not mean data extractivism, but rather preventing the monopolisation and privatisation of health technologies.

Therefore, biodiverse countries should not be asked to sign an instrument that will institutionalise their exchange without mechanisms to prevent the privatisation of the benefits derived from it.

PABS databases must have mandatory features such as user registration, data access agreements, the assignment of unique persistent identifiers to PABS materials, and transparent, legally binding provisions for subsequent exchange. Without this, the system will prioritise the needs of corporations over those of patients or healthcare workers. This undermines the work of the INB itself, which included in Article 7 the guarantee of ‘priority access to health technologies’ for healthcare workers. Worse still: it will institutionalise the cruel notion that some lives are worth more than others.

Countries must work towards a PABS system that operationalises predictability, legal certainty and global solidarity. A fair and equitable PABS system can save lives. We must not use multilateralism as a pretext to legalise continued extractivism and preventable deaths.