WHO WATCH: Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement | Nov. 5

‘The third meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement will be conducted in hybrid format during 3–7 November 2025, from 09:30–12:00 and 14:00pm–16:30 each day.

‘In May 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement under Article 19 of the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Through resolution WHA78.1, the Health Assembly established an open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) to undertake several tasks, including, as a priority, drafting and negotiating an annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system. This system will enable the safe, transparent and accountable access and benefit-sharing for PABS materials and sequence information. The IGWG will consider the draft PABS annex text for the first time.

‘The finalized PABS annex would be submitted to the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly in 2026 for its consideration.’