The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response has raised serious concerns that bilateral agreements between countries on health security may jeopardize global pandemic readiness.
The panel emphasized that multilateralism is essential to ensuring collective safety.
Speaking before the Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement in Geneva on Friday, Dr Michel Kazatchkine, panel member, criticized emerging efforts by some nations to form separate bilateral pacts on the sharing of pathogens.
“These agreements bypass the WHO and the principles of solidarity and equity we have been working to build,” said Dr Kazatchkine.
He warned that such deals often provide no guarantees of access to vital countermeasures and risk giving commercial advantage, and data control, to a single nation, threatening both global health security and national sovereignty.
The panel noted that so-called template bilateral agreements typically require countries to share pathogen samples and genetic data within days, which could allow a handful of powerful states to dominate global health data.
While recognizing that some governments might choose to pursue bilateral arrangements, the panel insisted that only a robust, multilateral strategy anchored in the forthcoming WHO Pandemic Agreement can provide a fair and effective response to future health crises.
“We underscore the importance of a successful, financed pandemic agreement that comes into force and is implemented as soon as possible,” Dr Kazatchkine urged.
“When pathogens know no borders, multilateralism is the only answer.”
The Independent Panel is co-chaired by former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, was set up in September 2020, to review the global response to Covid-19 and continues to call for stronger international cooperation in health security.