The WHO Pandemic Agreement is designed to strengthen the early detection of dangerous pathogens as well as strengthening international cooperation in the prevention and management of pandemics. The text of the pandemic agreement was adopted by the Member States at the 78th World Health Assembly on 20 May 2025. This does not signify legally binding implications for the individual Member States or an automatic obligation to sign or implement the agreement.
The drafting of the WHO Pandemic Agreement is one of the key recommendations of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Experience has shown that viruses can spread rapidly across national borders. The pandemic agreement therefore aims to strengthen international cooperation in pandemic prevention and response (e.g. research and development for pandemic related products, early recognition of dangerous pathogens). Closer international cooperation and better preparation by all countries will also serve to protect Switzerland and its population.
Current state of negotiation
The negotiation process for the pandemic agreement was concluded in April 2025. The text of the Pandemic Agreement was adopted by the WHO Member States at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) on 20 May 2025. It is available in the six official languages of the United Nations.
Work on the Pandemic Agreement has not yet been finalised. Following the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement text by the 78th WHA, the next step will be to draw up an annex, which will form an integral part of the overall agreement. The annex defines a mechanism for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS).
This mechanism is designed to provide a fair and functioning system ensuring rapid industry access to relevant pathogens and genetic sequence data in the event of a pandemic emergency. At the same time, fair benefit sharing (e.g. for access to vaccines or treatments) should be guaranteed for those countries that make these pathogens and genetic sequence data available.
The next steps for Switzerland
Adoption by the WHA does not signify legally binding implications for the individual Member States or an automatic obligation to sign or implement the agreement. The agreement will be submitted for signature when the annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism has been established, which will probably be in one to two years.
Once the pandemic agreement is opened for signature, Switzerland will decide on the basis of the final text whether it will accede to this agreement. If the outcome is in Switzerland’s interests, the Federal Council will present the agreement to parliament for approval.
Switzerland will continue to make independent decisions regarding its own health policy and measures going forward.
WHO Pandemic Agreement Q&A
Experience from the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that viruses can rapidly spread beyond national borders. If every state strives to minimize pandemic risks and ensure that it can respond to these if necessary, Switzerland will benefit, too. Close international collaboration is essential to ensuring that the world is optimally prepared for any future health emergency.
The new WHO Pandemic Agreement is designed to strengthen healthcare systems all around the world – in terms of both preparing for and coping with any future pandemic. The Agreement will promote improved and globally coordinated approaches in areas such as prevention, provisioning and strengthening healthcare personnel, to enhance the ability of healthcare systems at the national, regional and global level to cope with any future pandemic event.
The text of the new WHO Pandemic Agreement was formally approved by the WHO’s member states at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) on 20 May 2025. This is not the end of the process, however. Work is now proceeding on an annex to the Agreement which will establish a mechanism for pathogen access and benefit sharing (PABS) to enhance equitable access to medical advancements.
The Agreement will not become final and ready for signature until this annex has been finalised and approved by a further WHA, a process that is expected to take another one to two years.
Once the Agreement is available in its final form, Switzerland will decide whether it wishes to be a signatory to it. To do so, the Federal Council will carefully study the definitive text; and if the Agreement is deemed to be in Switzerland’s interests, it will be submitted to the Swiss Parliament for approval. If Parliament approves it, it could then be put to a national referendum.
The annex is intended to establish a fair and functioning optional system which, in the event of a future pandemic emergency, will ensure swift access to the pathogens involved and their genetic sequence data – particularly for industry, to allow the appropriate vaccines, diagnostic tools and/or medicinal products to be developed with all possible speed.
In return for this, the countries which provide such pathogens and the data thereon should be assured of fair benefit sharing, in areas such as access to vaccines and medicines. A well-functioning PABS mechanism should ensure that all states – Switzerland included – are given swift access to the relevant pathogens, which is crucial to enabling them to respond swiftly to any new pathogens in an emergency situation.
The new WHO Pandemic Agreement will be concluded by and among its signatory member states. The WHO is playing only a supporting and administrative role here, in areas such as establishing the mechanism for the pathogen access and benefit sharing envisaged, creating a global supply chain network and coordinating the financing of agreement-related activities.
The WHO will also provide the secretarial services and facilities for the conference of the contractual states that will be needed to implement the Agreement’s provisions. What concrete duties and tasks the WHO assumes here will be determined collectively by the contractual states.
No: the Agreement does not specify any actions that its contractual states should take in the event of a pandemic. The aim of the Agreement is to strengthen healthcare systems worldwide – in terms of both preventing future pandemics and coping with them effectively. Its contractual parties will continue to decide themselves what their healthcare policy should be and what actions they wish to take should a future pandemic occur.
Under its International Health Regulations (IHR), the WHO can already make recommendations to its member states, including recommended actions in response to a pandemic, and did so during COVID-19. But such recommendations are not legally binding.
The new WHO Pandemic Agreement will not in any way restrict or compromise the sovereign right of all WHO member states to pass legislation on how their national healthcare policy should be implemented and pursued. This is stated explicitly in the Agreement’s Article 3. Switzerland is also free to decide for itself, as a WHO member state, whether it wishes to ratify the new Pandemic Agreement.
The issue of mandatory vaccinations is not associated in any way with the new Pandemic Agreement.
No, these are two different processes.
The negotiations on amending the IHR were concluded in May 2024, and the amendments agreed were formally approved for Switzerland by the Federal Council in June 2025. These are technical modifications to the IHR, whose provisions Switzerland has been observing since the 1950s to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
The WHO Pandemic Agreement, by contrast, is a new agreement that is intended to strengthen international collaborations on preparing for and responding to a possible pandemic. The text of the new WHO Pandemic Agreement was approved at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025. The process is not yet complete, however: an annex to the new agreement covering pathogen access and benefit sharing (PABS) is now being devised, and is expected to take a further one to two years to conclude. After this, the final annex will have to be studied and processed in Switzerland, too.
