Preparing for the Next Crisis: The Pandemic Accord

ML&P has been closely following the process towards the creation of a new international instrument to better prevent, prepare for and respond to the next pandemic. We called for the negotiation of a pandemic treaty in May 2021 in a background paper to the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and our experts have been active participants in the World Health Organization process towards the creation of such an instrument since it was launched in December 2021.

Below is a collection of resources that ML&P has pulled together to help guide negotiations and advise those who want to see a robust, public health instrument that can prevent another experience like Covid-19.

Key reading

Relevant technical briefs

Relevant blogs

Worldwide licensing of pandemic technologies is already current practice. The Pandemic Accord should protect it.

The negotiations for a WHO pandemic accord are still in full swing this week. Talks are taking place behind...

It is not too late to solve the know-how problem in the WHO Pandemic Accord

Introduction One of the most important Intellectual Property (IP) problems which the Pandemic Accord negotiators need to solve is now...

Medicines Law & Policy responds to US Health and Human Services Department request for comments on draft WHO Pandemic Agreement

On 12 December 2023 the US Health and Human Services Department (HHS) posted a notice and request for comments...

WHO is an essential forum for debates on intellectual property and public health

Recently, Health Policy Watch reported that some European countries at the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement negotiations maintain...

The Urgency of Compulsory Licensing Provision for Transfer of Technology in the Pandemic Treaty: A Case Study on the WHO mRNA Hub

Guest blog by Ronald Eberhard The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, established by the World Health Assembly, aims to draft a global...

Current drafts of the WHO Pandemic Accord lack a provision for access to knowhow/trade secrets. We drafted one.

Negotiations are currently taking place at the World Health Organization (WHO) to conclude a new pandemic agreement by May...

ML&P’s Comments to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the Zero Draft of the Pandemic Accord

These remarks were delivered on the occasion of the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and...

TRIPS, technology transfer and access to pandemic countermeasures: What the WHO  Pandemic Treaty must do

The scrambling for access to Covid-19 vaccines by developing countries has reignited the debate on the WTO Trade-Related Aspects...

Seven recommendations for sharing intellectual property, know-how and technology – report of Global Expert Group on the Pandemic Treaty published by BMJ Global Health

Negotiators of a Pandemic Treaty should heed the recommendations, published 15 July in the BMJ Global Health, to design...

Imagine if health and trade ministers would meet in one room this week

A earlier version of this commentary was published on 28 November 2021 by Barron's. This is a time of missed...