The Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) will hold its eighth meeting from 14-18 September 2026.
WHO Member States have advanced negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) annex, a central component of the WHO Pandemic Agreement.
During the seventh meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the Pandemic Agreement that concluded last Friday in Geneva, the members agreed to finalize a framework that supports a faster, more effective and equitable response to future pandemics.
Member States also committed to continue intensive negotiations toward an ambitious, effective and equitable PABS annex and focused on several interrelated elements of the PABS system including the contractual arrangements underpinning the framework, the structure of the laboratory networks responsible for the sharing and handling of pathogens with pandemic potential and their sequence information, and the definition of benefits arising from pathogen sharing.
