These days, negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement are taking place in Geneva, including discussions on the future Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system. From Salud por Derecho, we have sent an open letter to the European Commission and the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU to call for a European position in these discussions that is guided by the principles of fairness, transparency and global solidarity.
The PABS system seeks to create a mechanism that ensures that the rapid sharing of biological materials and genetic information is matched by a fair distribution of the resulting benefits, such as essential therapeutics, vaccines or diagnostics. The letter, signed together with Health Action International, Action against AIDS Germany, Wemos, BUKO Pharma-Kampagne, Access to Medicines Ireland and Public Eye, warns that the EU’s current proposal risks leading to an imbalanced system in which information is openly shared while the benefits fail to reach all countries equally. This would perpetuate the inequalities that became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We believe that the PABS system will only be fair if access and benefit-sharing respond to global public health needs and guarantee that all regions can obtain the medicines, vaccines and diagnostics they need. It is essential that information is shared rapidly and responsibly and that equitable access to the resulting tools and knowledge is ensured.
We also underline the importance of strengthening transparency and civil society participation in the negotiations. Excluding non-state actors contradicts the EU’s own commitments to openness and democratic coherence.
Through this letter, we call on the European Union to put public health and equity ahead of commercial interests. Only in this way can we build a fairer and more inclusive global system that is better prepared to respond collectively to future health crises.
