Cognisant of these gaps in the IHR, the World Health Organization (WHO) formed an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft a new legally binding Pandemic Agreement and to facilitate the conclusion of member state negotiations by the upcoming 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2024. Underlining the Agreement are notions that this new agreement should fill policy gaps in the IHR and ensure equity worldwide. At the time of writing, WHO member states have been engaging in textual negotiations over crucial issues of the Pandemic Agreement, including what has been referred to as the ‘heart of the political bargain’ of the Agreement, that is, pathogen access and benefit sharing (PABS), as well as Research and Development (R&D) conditionalities, financing and technology transfer. During the two rounds of negotiations, the member states agreed on various issues such as governance mechanisms, compliance and implementation, workforce, and R&D, among others. However, they failed to reach consensus on critical issues such as PABS, pandemic prevention and one health, and pandemic financing. The WHO announced that the member states will continue the negotiation on the articles to reach into agreement before the 77th WHA.
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