By Brenna Matendere
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has intensified pressure on the European Union, accusing it of blocking developing countries’ demands for a binding equity clause in the WHO Pandemic Agreement‘s pending annex.
At the heart of the dispute is the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) Annex, a mechanism designed to ensure countries that share pathogen data receive fair access to the resulting vaccines and treatments.
While the main Pandemic Agreement was adopted in May 2025, talks on the PABS Annex remain deadlocked and must conclude by the end of March 2026.
The AHF warns that without a finalized and robust annex, the entire agreement cannot be ratified. Negotiators claim the EU and other wealthy nations like Switzerland, Japan, and Australia are opposing provisions that would mandate equitable sharing of benefits.
Dr. Enerst Chikwati, AHF Country Program Manager, highlighted the disparity at a Harare media briefing. “Data is going out, but the benefits are not coming back,” he said.
“Vaccines are developed using our data, yet we are not given the knowledge or capacity to manufacture them ourselves.”
As the May 2026 deadline looms, health experts fear failure to secure a fair deal will repeat the COVID-19 inequities, where wealthy nations hoarded vaccines while developing countries were left without access.
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