WHO delays pandemic treaty deadline amid dispute over pathogen data sharing

The world’s long-promised pandemic rules remained unfinished as WHO member states pushed back the deadline for finalizing the treaty’s most contentious piece: the rules for sharing pathogen data and the benefits that flow from it. The delay leaves unresolved a central question for the next outbreak, whether countries that send samples and genetic sequences will also get fair access to vaccines, tests and treatments built from that information.

The dispute centers on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing annex, or PABS, the mechanism meant to turn rapid sharing into a two-way bargain. WHO says the system is supposed to ensure transparent and equitable sharing of pathogen samples and genetic sequence data, along with the rapid, fair and equitable sharing of benefits from that sharing and use. Without agreement on that annex, the broader Pandemic Agreement adopted on May 20, 2025, cannot move into force.

That agreement was approved by consensus at the 78th World Health Assembly after more than three years of negotiations, following a committee vote of 124 in favor, 0 objections and 11 abstentions. WHO says the treaty is legally binding, but it will open for signature only after the Annex described in Article 12 is adopted by the Health Assembly.

In Geneva, WHO chief scientist Sylvie Briand said genetic data sharing had become as critical as sharing physical viruses for developing vaccines, treatments and diagnostics. She said developing countries fear they will share viruses without guarantees of equitable access to vaccines in a crisis, while other countries are asking whether pharmaceutical companies would have enough incentive to participate without a guarantee of return on investment.

The tension has turned the talks into a test of whether global health cooperation can survive the collision between public health and national self-interest. Wealthy countries want the scientific pipeline to keep moving, but lower-income nations want binding assurances that their samples will not be taken and converted into products they cannot afford. France 24 reported that Brazil’s mission said compromise was possible even though differences were “by no means negligible,” while Pakistan called the negotiations “quite challenging” but said it remained hopeful.

The delay matters well beyond Geneva. WHO framed the Pandemic Agreement as a response to the inequities exposed during COVID-19, when countries faced shortages of vaccines, protective equipment, information and expertise. The treaty is meant to strengthen coordination and make access to health tools more equitable, in the same way that WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and International Health Regulations shaped earlier global health law.

WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group, created under resolution WHA78.1, has already held meetings from July 2025 through March 2026, with more scheduled for July and September 2026. If the annex is not settled soon, the world risks entering the next pandemic with the same structural flaw that slowed the last one: scientists able to share data quickly, but governments still unable to agree on who benefits when they do.