Council Co-Chairs call for PABS deal that ensures access to medicines during a pandemic emergency
Not sensible or safe to rely on companies voluntarily sharing technology, warn Stiglitz, Geingos and Marmot, as world leaders debate how to overcome pandemics
Reflecting on the discussions on the annexe on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) currently being debated, the Co-Chairs of the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics have called on negotiators to agree a deal that will ensure that in a pandemic emergency medicines get to people across the world at scale without delay. “Leaders should agree to automatically wave global intellectual property rules on pandemic technology when a pandemic is declared,” advised Joseph Stiglitz, Monica Geingos and Michael Marmot.
The statement issued by the Co-Chairs of the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics advises:
“The annexe on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) will be essential to making the Pandemic Agreement effective in overcoming pandemics.Â
“We have learnt from repeated painful experience that in a pandemic emergency medicines have to get to people across the world at scale without delay, and that given that urgency it is not sensible or safe to rely on companies voluntarily sharing technology.
“Leaders should agree to automatically waive global intellectual property rules on pandemic technology when a pandemic is declared. For the long-term, leaders also need to build an R&D model that treats pandemic health technology as public goods.
“The discussions on the PABS annexe that are taking place this week might need be extended to enable the agreement to be effective.
“The evidence is clear that health is socially determined and that the world is currently locked in an inequality-pandemic cycle – but that through bold actions by leaders it can break out of that cycle to help protect everyone’s health.”
The Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics brings together experts from across the world, and guides leaders on effective pandemic response. The Global Council’s recent report, Breaking the inequality-pandemic cycle – Building true health security in a global age, sets out the steps that leaders need to take. The intervention of the Global Council’s Co-Chairs in the discussions on the current negotiations on the annexe on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) highlights the importance of those negotiations and brings to those discussions the insights from the evidence of the Global Council’s research.
/ENDS
Notes for editors
Biographies of the members of the Global Council are at https://www.inequalitycouncil.org/members/
The report, Breaking the inequality-pandemic cycle – Building true health security in a global age, is at https://www.inequalitycouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Report-2025_Global-Council-report_En-1.pdf