TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Apr26/02)
30 April 2026
Third World Network

WHO: Member States propose extending PABS Negotiations beyond WHA79

Geneva , 30th April 2026, (TWN): Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed extending the timeline for the negotiations on the Pathogens Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) System, beyond the 79^th World Health Assembly (WHA79) scheduled to take place in May.  

Member states proposed the extension during the stocktaking session on the third day of the  resumed session of the 6th meeting of the intergovernmental working group (IGWG) negotiating the PABS system, taking place in Geneva at the WHO headquarters from 27 April-1 May.

Delegates participating in the closed stocktaking session report that several countries—both developing and developed—expressed concern over the limited progress to date, citing persistent and wide divergences among WHO Member States on key aspects of the PABS system.

So far, there has been no substantive movement on proposals from developing countries to establish legally binding contracts as a precondition for access to pathogens and their sequence information. Major issues related to benefit sharing also remain unresolved, including monetary contributions, equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics (VTDs) during outbreaks, and provisions for non-exclusive licensing of technologies to manufacturers in developing countries, although there has been some progress on the matter of availability of VTDs in the event of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

Director General’s  Call for Miracles

The WHO Director General (DG) expressed his confidence in the negotiators and hope that there will be miracles by the end of this week. The DG urged delegations to utilize to the fullest the time available this week for focused negotiations and then think of a way forward later if IGWG cannot find consensus, sources say. Prior to the stocktaking, DG made a similar remark during a press conference with the members of the Association of Accredited Correspondents at the United Nations.

Further according to sources, the DG questioned the need for stocktaking in the middle of the week and called for negotiations to continue on substantive issues even into the weekend, recalling a similar deadlock situation a year ago around the Pandemic Agreement negotiations.

[In reality the situations are different, as a year ago prior to the World Health Assembly, much of the text had been tentatively agreed. In the case of PABS, much of the text remains in brackets with only a very few paragraphs tentatively agreed.]  

The WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO) said in their statement that a common understanding of core differences and ways of addressing those differences are only emerging now, and while hopeful these discussions would bring results, more time was needed post WHA79.

The European Union made it clear that the IGWG is nearing landing zones, but more time is needed, and there is no time before May 2026,  expressing as well that it would be difficult to negotiate during WHA 79, diplomatic sources say.

Other developed countries also expressed similar views, adding need for the WHA to give direction, sources say. Finland, explained the importance of not rushing through the process, in view of the rising anti-vaccine and anti-WHO trend, as otherwise, the Pandemic Agreement may lack legitimacy, sources say.

Developing countries were more optimistic about completing the negotiations and adopting the PABS Annex by WHA, stressing that what was needed is political will, according to various delegations.

Why there is no compromise?

According to diplomatic sources, Indonesia said compromises cannot be built in relation to a system whereby only parts of the system are accountable and while other elements remain unaccountable, warning that using the PABS system to legitimize the status quo only results in extraction of biological resources, and not benefit sharing.

Pakistan said that many proposals made by  colleagues in the IGWG did not constitute credible “landing zones”. Pakistan also called out the compromise agenda of the EU which assumes that developing countries will forgo the demand for having contracts at the time of accessing PABS materials and sequence information just because the EU makes some changes on the benefit-sharing text.

Sources reported that Pakistan clearly stated that the EU may even give the most ambitious commitments with respect to benefits, but then such benefits cannot be realized if the contractual obligations are not undertaken at the time of accessing pathogens and samples. According to Pakistan, proposals avoiding legal certainty are not a meaningful compromise.

Negotiations Continue

At the end of the stocktaking session, the IGWG decided to continue negotiations which on Wednesday ended around 11.30pm. The negotiations focused on the provisions related to governance of the PABS system and reached an initial consensus, but only on “one paragraph”.  

The IGWG is expected to close on Friday, 1^st May.