Access and Benefit Sharing: Streamlining Legal Frameworks for Global Health Equity

In November 2024, the state parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) invited pharmaceutical companies utilizing publicly available digital sequence information (DSI) from genetic resources to contribute 0.1% of their revenue or 1% of their profit to a global access and benefit sharing (ABS) fund, known as the Cali Fund. Simultaneously, World Health Organization (WHO) member states are negotiating a pandemic treaty, which includes a pathogen access and benefit-sharing system (PABS). If adopted, PABS will require pharmaceutical companies to provide financial or in-kind contributions when using pathogen genetic sequence data (GSD). Given that both ABS frameworks would apply to the development of the same vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, their overlap could create significant legal complexity and uncertainty, ultimately jeopardizing equitable access to medical countermeasures. Therefore, we call on states to create a single, multilateral system that will govern the sharing of pathogen DSI and GSD. This will help ensure that a single ABS system applies to each health product, thereby reducing legal complexity and enhancing regulatory clarity. In turn, this will contribute to advancing global health equity.