World Health Organization member states will meet in Geneva next week for the fourth round of negotiations (IGWG 4) on a Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing annex to the Pandemic Agreement.

The current draft of the annex does not acknowledge that many pandemic threats have animal origin. To address this and truly prevent another pandemic, Action for Animal Health urges member states to anchor the One Health approach in the annex in the following ways:

• Acknowledge the One Health approach within the scope and objectives section
• Expand the draft definition of ‘pathogens with pandemic potential’ to include pathogens that have not yet spilled over from animals to people, but have the potential to do so
• Ensure that animal health laboratories are included in a WHO coordinated laboratory network and that benefits are shared between public health and animal health labs
• Include One Health sectors in the WHO lab network’s governance (FAO, WOAH etc).

Find Action for Animal Health’s written statement here.