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Civil society and scientists express concerns over safety and fairness in the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system.
They argue the current draft lacks strong accountability and biosecurity measures, potentially increasing global risks.
Calls for mandatory contributions, improved access, and stronger safeguards are being made.
Negotiations are underway at the World Health Organization (WHO) to finalise the last unresolved part of the world’s first Pandemic Agreement, a system for sharing dangerous pathogens and the benefits that come from them.
As talks continue, scientists and civil society groups are warning that the current draft could increase global risks if strong safety and fairness rules are not added.
The Pandemic Agreement was adopted by consensus in May 2025 after three years of negotiations. It was created after COVID-19 exposed major global failures.
Although vaccines saved millions of lives, access was deeply unequal. High-income countries received enough doses to protect their populations, while low-income countries received only a fraction.
To fix this, the agreement created the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system.
PABS is meant to ensure that countries share virus samples and genetic data quickly during outbreaks and that, in return, they receive fair access to vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tools.
But as the PABS annex is being negotiated ahead of the World Health Assembly in May 2026, experts said the current draft focuses too much on speed and not enough on safety, accountability and fairness.
In February 2026, two open letters raised serious concerns. The February 8 letter by civil society organisations sent to the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Working Group raised concerns about weak accountability, legal loopholes and diluted benefit sharing commitments in the proposed PABS text.
In the letter addressed to a senior WHO negotiator, the groups argued that the draft weakens obligations under Article 12.7 and 12.8 of the Pandemic Agreement, which deals with benefit sharing during public health emergencies and even before emergencies are declared.
They said the draft does not require companies to make regular financial contributions, allows companies to choose what benefits they want to provide and treat benefit sharing as optional instead of mandatory.
The civil society organisations also warned that this could repeat what happened during COVID-19 when countries shared virus samples but did not receive vaccines or treatments in time.
They called for
Mandatory financial contributions from companies,
Guaranteed access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments,
Reserved supplies for WHO stockpiles,
Legal certainty that licences will be provided to manufacturers in developing countries during emergencies and
Binding agreements for all users both commercial and non- commercial.
They also criticised the negotiations process, saying proposals were not shared publicly before talks resumed in Geneva in January 2026 and that civil society participation was limited.
Following this, scientists and civil society organisations wrote separately to WHO member states on February 10, focusing primarily on biosecurity risks.
Biosecurity means having rules and systems in place to prevent dangerous pathogens from being accidentally released or deliberately misused.
The authors of this letter warned that the draft PABS system lacks strong safeguards to prevent misuse of dangerous pathogen data. Their concerns included
Anonymous access to pathogen genetic databases,
No requirement to track who accesses the data or how it is used,
No obligation to report risky research, lab accidents, lab-acquired infections or cybersecurity breaches,
Weak cybersecurity protections in global databases.
Scientists explained that once a virus’s genetic code is publicly available, it can be recreated in a laboratory using synthetic DNA, a process that is becoming cheaper and faster.
The authors also warned that advances in artificial intelligence and synthetic biology increase the risk. AI tools can now help generate genetic sequences, potentially lowering the barrier to designing harmful pathogens.
They cautioned that without safeguards, the very system meant to strengthen pandemic preparedness could increase the risk of accidental release, misuse or deliberate harm.
Researchers are urging the WHO to mandate verified identities for individuals accessing pathogen data, monitor and record access to genetic sequence databases, enforce legally binding agreements for all users, require the reporting of hazardous research, laboratory incidents and cyber intrusions, enhance cybersecurity protocols, and establish more robust WHO oversight, including the governance of pathogen databases.
WHO member states are expected to continue negotiations and aim to finalise the PABS annex before the 79th World Health Assembly in May 2026.