On 24 May, during the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva, IFPMA delivered a statement on agenda item 15.1: Strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience.

Reforming the global health architecture is a monumental and complex undertaking for the public health community.

We are concerned that the early operationalization of HEPR presupposes the outcomes of the ongoing negotiations and includes proposals that will jeopardize the world’s ability to prepare for future pandemics. We need to maintain enablers for future pandemic preparedness and response encouraging public and private partnerships, strengthen what worked well – including innovation and manufacturing scale up – and together address the need to improve equitable access.

To avoid duplication and fragmentation, we call on the WHO to work in coordination and collaboration with ongoing efforts, including with the formal negotiations of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for the WHO CA+ and Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005). Discussions at the G20 and UNGA should also align with these ongoing initiatives.

We noted with concern that the current HEPR scope is too broad and would entail a significant extension of WHO’s role and mandate with regards to pandemic preparedness and response. It is important that WHO focuses and delivers on these core technical responsibilities. We encourage WHO to consistently include the private sector in its global health architecture initiative to ensure that HEPR builds on private sector R&D, manufacturing, and distribution strengths, supported by a robust intellectual property system as demonstrated in the rapid response during the COVID-19 pandemic.