As three days of international talks kicked off last week regarding the drafting of new rules for combating future pandemics, developing nations, including South Africa, Pakistan and India, formally requested fairer access to treatments than they got during COVID-19.
However, reports Reuters, their fear is that that the chances of a positive response from a scheduled 18 months of negotiations at the World Health Organisation (WHO) are already stacked against them, as they lack the wealthier countries’ negotiating firepower.
An ambassador from a developing country, who asked not to be named, said: “The advanced countries have the requisite resources and can afford to have it covered, while we cannot.”
Countries agreed for a six-member body to rework an initial draft with a view to starting negotiations on that version in February next year, the WHO said last week.
Thereafter follows a year of tough negotiations on the new document, with a deal targeted by May 2024. One diplomat estimated the talks alone would take up to 400 hours.
Countries’ relative negotiating clout is important as questions of fairness, including access to vaccines and drugs and calls for transparency in governments’ dealings with pharmaceutical firms, are likely to be at the heart of talks.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the planned accord a chance to make the world safer for generations, while labelling the distribution of shots during COVID-19 as “vaccine apartheid”.
Dr Jaouad Mahjour, the WHO’s Assistant Director-General, Emergency Preparedness and International Health Regulations, said the health body had heard small delegations’ concerns “very clearly” and would be taking them into consideration.
Three sources familiar with the negotiations say developing countries are seeking a trade-off built into the treaty, which would reward them for sharing information about disease outbreaks with guarantees of access to treatments.
Pressure for a breakthrough on this may increase, they say, with talks on a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID treatments deadlocked at the WHO.
Resources for talks
In parallel to the treaty talks, country teams are discussing setting up a G20 pandemic fund and revamping the WHO's existing health emergency rules. Experts following the latter will have to sift through more than 20 proposals containing some 300 amendments.
To respond to the challenge, some Western countries like the US have appointed a lead negotiator. US representative Pamela Hamamoto said the current draft accord represented a “kitchen sink version” and a lot needed to change before Washington could sign it.
Meanwhile, “small governments will not be able to engage in (the) process as they will be totally overwhelmed”, said Clare Wenham, associate professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
South Africa’s Precious Matsoso, co-chair of the pandemic treaty talks, told Reuters countries could hire experts to help, or band together for regional representation.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Global vaccine inequality not unique to COVID vaccines – first WHO report
Partial TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines – finally
WHO chief calls for Trips waiver and praises SA’s vaccine development project
IP and COVID-19 medicines: Why a WTO waiver may not be enough
Outrage over COVID-19 vaccine inequities: Rich world hogs supplies and patents