Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced during the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) that they will discuss the ‘zero draft’ of the legally binding pandemic accord in February 2023.
In December 2021, the World Health Assembly agreed to start a global process to draft the pandemic treaty.
The need for an updated set of rules was felt after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the shortcomings of global health systems.
The pandemic treaty is expected to cover aspects like data sharing and genome sequencing of emerging viruses and equitable distribution of vaccines and drugs and related research throughout the world.
