Wellcome responds to WHO Pandemic Agreement

Jeremy Knox, Head of Infectious Disease Policy at Wellcome, said:

“In order to ensure an equitable effective response to future health emergencies, we need a worldwide consensus on how best to prepare.  The Pandemic Agreement is a significant and important step in establishing this. Despite a challenging geopolitical environment, it is to be commended that member states have united after a long and difficult negotiation process to commit to improving how the world responds to global health crises.

“We now need a sustained and persistent effort to achieve the agreement’s ambitions on issues such as making R&D, access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics more equitable in an emergency. Achieving this will require Governments, as well as public and private sector partnerships, to work together to build on this momentum of cooperation to deliver a more resilient, equitable approach to tackling future epidemics or pandemics.”