SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The World Health Organization adopted a treaty last year to try to be better prepared for the next pandemic, but the agreement is still in limbo because countries cannot agree to the most contentious part - how to share data and vaccines or drugs. The latest rounds of negotiations wrapped up ahead of the U.N. General Assembly this week. Here to discuss is NPR's global health correspondent Jonathan Lambert. Hey, Jonathan.
JONATHAN LAMBERT, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So bring us up to speed. What is this treaty all about?
LAMBERT: It's basically an effort to try to learn from some of the mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the heart of it is really about equity. During COVID, drug companies made vaccines in record time, and this is in large part because they had access to the virus' genetic data in those really early days. But access to those shots was extremely unequal. Seven months into vaccine campaigns, about 80% of the shots went to high-income countries, while low-income countries got just 1%. Countries don't want this to happen again. In principle, countries agreed that they should share data on pathogens, and in principle, they agreed that all countries should be able to access resulting vaccines or drugs.
DETROW: OK, but there's often a difference between in principle and in actuality, right?
LAMBERT: Yes. Yeah, and countries cannot agree on how any of this would actually work. And the different sides have been negotiating for over a year to not much effect.
DETROW: Take me through the different sides.
LAMBERT: So it's largely a division between the Global North and the Global South, or wealthy countries and lower-income countries. Pharmaceutical companies are concentrated in wealthy countries, and these countries want a system where data on new pathogens is available as quickly and easily as possible. They say that'll help companies get to a vaccine or drug faster, which in a pandemic can save lives worldwide.
DETROW: OK, so what do lower-income countries say to that?
LAMBERT: They think that kind of open system could lead to the same sort of inequities we already saw. They want as strong a guarantee as they can get that if they share data on a pathogen sample - or if they share data or a pathogen sample today, that they'll eventually get the vaccines or drugs that were made from that data. So they want to kind of attach strings to the data using access to it as a kind of leverage.
DETROW: What could those strings look like?
LAMBERT: One option would be to put all of this pathogen data in a closed database so companies or scientists can only access it if they sign a contract with WHO and agree to share benefits. The contract could require some portion of vaccines developed to go to WHO for free or at cost. It might also involve requirements for sharing technology so that lower-income countries can eventually make the vaccines themselves.
Wealthier countries have bought into some of this, but not as a condition of accessing the data. They say that those strings will ultimately slow down science, and speed is crucial in a pandemic. But lower-income countries don't necessarily buy this. Sangeeta Shashikant works for the Third World Network, a group advising lower-income countries, and she says that high-income countries kind of want it both ways.
SANGEETA SHASHIKANT: They want the sharing of pathogen and data to happen, but they do not want the benefit sharing. They're saying that, you know, that is kind of optional, you know?
DETROW: What about the U.S.? Is it involved in these talks?
LAMBERT: So not since leaving the WHO last year, but the U.S. has been making these one-on-one deals with countries kind of on the side that could be undermining the pandemic treaty negotiations. Those deals often involve sharing pathogen data with the U.S. directly in exchange for, say, some kind of health aid. Suerie Moon, a policy analyst at the Geneva Graduate Institute, likened those deals to, quote, "termites in the house that they're trying to build." And there's a worry that eventually that house could collapse before the pandemic treaty is finished. Negotiations are set to continue through next May, which many view as kind of the deadline for any sort of final deal.
DETROW: NPR global health correspondent Jonathan Lambert, thank you so much.
LAMBERT: Thank you.
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