Governing pandemics snapshot. Issue 5

Welcome to the fifth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot. This issue provides critical insight into the past six months of negotiations over a World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, examining whether a meaningful agreement can be achieved this year. It addresses remaining contentious issues such as Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) and One Health, whilst highlighting recent successes in Research and Development (R&D) and Sustainable Financing. The recent US withdrawal from the WHO, however, will add a significant layer of complexity to the negotiations, with potentially farreaching implications for the future of the pandemic agreement and global health governance. The second piece explores the recent Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Decision on Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and its implications for the pandemic agreement negotiations, particularly for its PABS System. Finally, this edition analyzes the governance challenges that lie ahead in creating coordination and synergies between the newly amended International Health Regulations (IHR) and the pandemic agreement.