Pandemic Preparedness and Response: Advancing Research, Development, and Ethical Distribution of New Treatments and Vaccines

Everyone should have a legally secured human right to health, which includes the right to access essential medicines and vaccines. So adequate pandemic preparedness and response requires putting in place the basic healthcare systems essential for administering them. Moreover, to ensure equitable access to essential medicines, policymakers must advance research and development in a way that does not just serve the interests of those in rich countries. In light of these observations, I suggest some core provisions for the pandemic accord currently under negotiation through the World Health Assembly to advance equitable research, development, and distribution of essential health technologies. Key provisions include commitments to (1) fund pharmaceutical research and development collaboratively. Signatories should require open access research and development financed by advance market commitments or prizes sufficient to cover companies’ costs and ensure sufficient funds for future research and development. Moreover, signatories should (2) provide significant investments in global health infrastructure and these should be equitably distributed based on global need, and (3) ensure that the essential health technologies and the basic health services necessary to support their uptake are available, acceptable, affordable, accessible, and of good quality. Furthermore, until the terms of the accord are fully implemented, signatories should (4) utilize, and support each other’s attempts to extend access to health technologies via, flexibilities in international trade agreements, though signatories’ attempts should not be limited by the terms of these agreements. Moreover, they should (5) set targets, monitor and evaluate performance, and expand access to health technologies as quickly as possible. Anything less is inequitable.