The Pandemic Treaty

The Pandemic Treaty

Context:

In order to address the systematic failures during COVID-19 crisis, a pandemic treaty by 25 heads of government and international agencies is on the agenda as a significant development in global health governance.

Relevance:
GS-02 (Important International Institutions, Health)

Facts for prelims:

• Disease X:
  • It was introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
  • Disease X is a term used to represent a hypothetical, unknown, or unexpected infectious disease that could potentially cause a future epidemic or pandemic.

Dimensions of the Article:

• The Treaty and Its Importance
• Advantages
• Challenges and Suggestions
• Solutions

The Treaty and Its Importance:

• The Pandemic treaty aims to build global defenses against pandemics and prioritize equity in pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response efforts.
• The treaty seeks to solve the shortcomings (insufficient preparedness and lack of coordination at both national and international levels) observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It is officially referred to as the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Accord.
• The draft text contains various provisions addressing pathogen surveillance, healthcare capacity, supply chain management, technology transfer for medical product production, and intellectual property rights waivers.

Advantages:

• It will ensure a robust healthcare system for future threats.
• It guarantees early detection and response to outbreaks at the earliest.
• Faster development and wider distribution of vaccines and other medical countermeasures.

Challenges:

• Establishing a global system for sharing pathogen data particularly between developed and developing nations.
  • The proposed WHO Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System aims to incentivize data sharing by obligating manufacturers to provide a percentage of products free of charge or at not-for-profit prices in exchange for access to genetic sequence data.
• Ensuring accountability and enforcement, crucial for coordinating pandemic response efforts.
• Absence of robust enforcement mechanisms that weakens the efficacy of the Agreement.
• Securing sufficient funding for its implementation.

Solutions:

• Establishment of a decision-making body like the UNFCCC model ensures equitable representation and decision-making.
• Proposals requiring firms to waive or reduce intellectual property royalties for publicly financed products.

Way Forward:

• The Pandemic Agreement represents a crucial step towards rebuilding trust and fostering international collaboration in confronting the looming threat of future pandemics, acknowledging the interdependence of nations in safeguarding global health security.