On 20 May 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted the first WHO Pandemic Agreement, following more than three years of negotiations launched after the weaknesses exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Its stated goal is to build a stronger system to prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics, with deeper international cooperation and fairer access to vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and other medical products.
The agreement was adopted by consensus in plenary after the relevant committee had approved it the previous day with 124 votes in favour, no objections and 11 abstentions. The institutional significance is considerable: for the first time WHO member states have created a dedicated international framework for pandemics, turning some of the lessons learned since 2020 into a standing set of commitments.
Why a global agreement was needed
Covid-19 demonstrated that rapid scientific progress is not enough when manufacturing and distribution remain uneven. Many lower-resource countries gained access to vaccines and diagnostics later, while governments competed for scarce raw materials, protective equipment and production capacity.
The agreement therefore shifts the focus from emergency response alone to permanent preparedness. That means stronger disease surveillance, resilient health systems, research networks, laboratory capacity, regional manufacturing and mechanisms for international coordination. The underlying logic is that a pathogen capable of crossing borders in weeks cannot be managed effectively through isolated national strategies.
Access to medical products and manufacturing
A central part of the framework is access to medical countermeasures. The agreement seeks more timely and equitable availability of vaccines, medicines and diagnostics, including through stronger production capacity across different regions. This is fundamentally a technology and infrastructure challenge involving skills transfer, industrial capacity, research networks and regulatory systems that can assess products quickly while maintaining safety and efficacy standards.
The agreement does not automatically settle every debate over intellectual property, pricing or procurement. Its real impact will depend on the operational tools built around it and on whether governments translate commitments into investment, procedures and durable cooperation.
The pathogen access and benefit-sharing question
One major piece of implementation still to be completed is the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system. The idea is to connect rapid access to pathogen samples and information with a fairer sharing of the benefits generated by research and product development. Speedy data sharing can accelerate science, but countries providing samples and sequences want confidence that resulting vaccines or treatments will not become available only to richer markets.
The PABS mechanism will therefore have to balance scientific openness, security, incentives for innovation and equitable access. It is likely to become one of the most consequential tests of the agreement.
What it means for research and industry
For biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, diagnostics firms and health infrastructure providers, the framework could encourage more long-term planning. Pandemic preparedness is not simply the ability to manufacture a vaccine after a new virus appears. It also includes adaptable technology platforms, flexible production lines, fill-and-finish capacity, strategic reserves, sequencing networks and digital monitoring systems.
If implemented well, the agreement could push governments and companies to invest before crises begin, when political urgency is lower but prevention is far less costly than delayed response. That would amount to treating preparedness as strategic infrastructure rather than exceptional spending triggered only by an emergency.
Adoption is only the beginning
The agreement’s effectiveness will depend on national implementation, financing and the ability to maintain trust among governments, industry and science. Covid-19 showed how quickly cooperation can give way to competition when critical resources become scarce.
The 2025 agreement therefore establishes a common foundation rather than a complete solution. Its real test will come with the next major threat: if data, vaccines, medicines and manufacturing capacity become available faster and more evenly, the agreement will have converted the lessons of the last pandemic into a more resilient global health infrastructure.
