{"id":12089,"date":"2026-04-26T23:10:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/developed-countries-propose-hybrid-model-ahead-of-pandemic-agreement-talks-health-policy-watch\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T23:10:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:10:04","slug":"developed-countries-propose-hybrid-model-ahead-of-pandemic-agreement-talks-health-policy-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/developed-countries-propose-hybrid-model-ahead-of-pandemic-agreement-talks-health-policy-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Developed Countries Propose \u2018Hybrid\u2019 Model Ahead Of Pandemic Agreement Talks – Health Policy Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another negotiating session on the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement begins at the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) headquarters on Monday (27 April) \u2013 and developed nations have presented a \u201chybrid\u201d solution in an attempt to find consensus.<\/span>
The \u201chybrid\u201d proposal consists of a mix of mandatory and voluntary measures for sharing pathogen information and any benefits that flow from this information.<\/span>
Adeel Mumtaz Khokhar, First Secretary to the Permanent Mission of Pakistan in Geneva, confirmed that a \u201chybrid\u201d proposal had been presented to developing countries by some developed countries, but declined to name them.<\/span>
WHO member states are negotiating how to share both information about dangerous pathogens and some of the \u201cbenefits\u201d that manufacturers may develop from that information \u2013 namely, vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTDs).<\/span>
The outstanding annex will set out terms for a pathogen access and benefit-sharing (PABS) system that ensures all countries have access to countermeasures to combat a pandemic or <\/span>public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)<\/span><\/a> \u2013 unlike during COVID-19 when rich countries hoarded scarce vaccines.<\/span>
\u201c<\/span>We have been hearing rumours about this hybrid system for the past two IGWG [Intergovernmental Working Group] meetings, and finally, some developed country negotiator took pity on us and presented it,\u201d Khokhar told a high-level webinar hosted by the University of Miami\u2019s Public Health Policy Lab last week.<\/span>
The proposal envisages two categories for biological material, Khokhar explained.<\/span>
To access one category, countries and manufacturers will \u201chave to follow certain terms and conditions\u201d, and these will be included in the PABS system. No terms or conditions apply to the other category of material, including benefit-sharing obligations.<\/span>
However, Third World Network (TWN), a civil society alliance tracking the negotiations, says that the hybrid system proposed by developed countries also envisages a split between information sharing and benefits.<\/span>
\u201cDeveloped countries expect developing countries to share pathogen samples and sequence information freely, while deferring benefit-sharing to future negotiations between WHO and pharmaceutical manufacturers,\u201d <\/span>writes TWN in a recent brief<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
For Khokhar, the hybrid proposal \u201cis essentially the status quo\u201d as it allows parties to \u201cshare the way they want to share\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>
\u201cSo I’m not sure how fundamentally the needle is moved by this proposal. All I can understand from this proposal is that they want to retain and preserve the status quo, which, from a developing country negotiations perspective, is a disappointment.\u201d<\/span>
Nurhafiza Hamza, Minister Counsellor for Health at Malaysia\u2019s Permanent Mission to Geneva, explained that developing countries want \u201ca set of mandatory benefit-sharing that is acceptable to different categories of users of the PABS system\u201d \u2013 member states and pharmaceutical companies \u2013 during health emergencies.<\/span>
\u201cIf manufacturers have VTDs during a PHEIC or pandemic emergency, they should share,\u201d said Hamza. \u201cIt is important to get some mandatory benefit sharing and not a menu of options, where manufacturers can pick and choose.\u201d<\/span>
Jean Karydakis, Counsellor in Brazil’s Mission in Geneva, acknowledged that the positions of the different groups \u2013 primarily developed countries versus developing countries \u2013 are fairly entrenched.<\/span>
\u201cWe won’t change other countries’ positions at this time,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cThe question now is whether we can find possible creative language, also bearing in mind that we will have a Conference of the Parties (COP) later on that will need to revisit and detail further what we cannot agree right now.\u201d<\/span>
Karydakis also asserted that \u201c90% of of the text is already agreed in the Pandemic Agreement, and the Pandemic Agreement was already adopted. \u201c<\/span>
But the PABS system was a contentious issue that evaded negotiators, who packaged it into an annex and kicked it down the road to new negotiations. This enabled the World Health Assembly to adopt the Pandemic Agreement last year, described by some observers as the Pandemic Agreement Lite precisely because it dodged the detail about PABS.<\/span>
Adopting a vague PABS annex and kicking further details down the road again \u2013 this time to the COP \u2013 might save face for multilateralism. But it simply delays the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement to yet another set of talks, leaving all member states vulnerable to public health emergencies in the meantime.<\/span>
Developing countries want the annex to include a standard contract to govern access to biological material and digital sequencing, including benefit-sharing obligations.<\/span>
But Khokhar said that the IGWG Bureau and \u201cother colleagues\u201d have expressed that \u201ca full standardised contract may not be the appropriate way\u201d, as it is hard to predict what \u2013 if any \u2013 VTDs may be developed as a result.<\/span>
\u201cFair enough,\u201d he said, adding that developing countries are prepared to explore the inclusion of a \u201cbasic contract\u201d followed by a PABS contract, if a party has developed a medical countermeasure.<\/span>
\u201cBut what is their answer to this suggestion? Let’s have an open and a closed system. So, in this endeavour to try and find and create a multilateral system, we are actually going back to our national systems\u2026 What new system are we creating here? We’re creating nothing new?\u201d<\/span>
For TWN, the lack of \u201ccontractually enforceable legal obligations for recipients of PABS materials and sequence information \u201cwill add to the legal uncertainty, as benefit-sharing will depend on the WHO concluding contracts with manufacturers.<\/span>
Namibian negotiator Taime Sylvester said that the funders of research in developing countries are \u201coverwhelmingly high-income country governments and foundations\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>
They could \u201cinclude PABS compliance as a condition of their grants,\u201d said Sylvester, pointing to the example of the European Union\u2019s Horizon Europe (2021\u20132027), its funding programme for research and innovation.<\/span>
This <\/span>requires researchers to commit to Nagoya Protocol compliance<\/span><\/a>, which mandates fair benefit-sharing from the use of genetic resources.<\/span>
Norwegian Health Counsellor Eirik Rodseth Bakka acknowledged that there are \u201csignificant outstanding issues, and I think as a collective, we do need to see significant progress next week\u201d.<\/span>
However, he stressed that member states have the opportunity to \u201ccorrect some of those inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d especially early access to vaccines for low- countries and lower-middle-income countries, and enabling \u201cto the extent possible that there is more technology transfer and access to access to manufacturing capacity.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
Karydakis expressed hope that \u201cwe will get this by May\u201d, adding that talks may need to continue alongside the World Health Assembly in late May, the deadline for the annex.\u00a0<\/span>
He also joked that night sessions were necessary to get people tired and hungry and \u201conly able to leave the room when the deal is reached.\u201d<\/span>
Sylvester said that Namibia believes that \u201ca fair, functional, legally grounded PABS system\u201d is possible and will assist both the global south and the global north need this functional system to succeed. So we we believe it. We believe that it can happen which is above and beyond, or we’re not asking any country to stand to a higher standard. We’re asking the same standards.<\/span>
Malaysia\u2019s Hamza described the PABS system as \u201cthe litmus test for equity\u201d.<\/span>
\u201cWe will have to see whether states will come in next week and design a PABS system that would actually make an improvement in the current status quo.When the Group for Equity gets together, the first thing we will assess is whether what we have agreed on, each paragraph, is really delivering equity.\u201d<\/span>
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Yet another negotiating session on the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement begins at the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) headquarters on Monday (27 April) \u2013 and developed nations have presented a \u201chybrid\u201d solution in an attempt to find consensus.The \u201chybrid\u201d proposal consists of a mix of mandatory and voluntary measures for sharing pathogen information and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}