---
type: source
title: "WHO PABS annex negotiations extended to April 2026, May WHA deadline unchanged"
author: "World Health Organization"
url: https://www.who.int/news/item/28-03-2026-who-member-states-agree-to-extend-negotiations-on-key-annex-to-the-pandemic-agreement
date: 2026-03-28
domain: grand-strategy
secondary_domains: []
format: thread
status: null-result
priority: medium
tags: [who, pandemic-agreement, pabs, commercial-blocking, international-governance]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

On March 28, 2026, WHO Member States agreed to extend PABS annex negotiations to April 27-May 1, 2026, with informal intersessional discussions in advance. The PABS (Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing) annex is a core component of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, required before the agreement opens for signature.

Current state of negotiations (as of late March 2026):
- Agreement adopted May 20, 2025 by 120 countries (11 abstentions)
- PABS annex still not finalized — expected at May 2026 World Health Assembly
- Major divide: ~100 LMICs demand mandatory benefit sharing (guaranteed access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics)
- Wealthy nations: prefer voluntary benefit sharing, resist mandatory access obligations
- Contractual arrangements and governance mechanisms remain contested

Issues at stake: how benefits derived from pathogen sharing should be defined and distributed; nature of contractual arrangements; governance oversight mechanisms.

Context: US formally withdrew from WHO on January 22, 2026 (per Executive Order 14155, January 20, 2025). The US had rejected the 2024 International Health Regulations amendments. The pandemic agreement process continues without US participation.

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** The commercial blocking condition (PABS dispute) is the structural barrier preventing ratification of the Pandemic Agreement — 6+ years post-COVID, maximum triggering event, and still commercial interests are the binding constraint. This updates the Session 04-03 finding about PABS status.

**What surprised me:** The negotiations are still active and there's genuine effort to resolve PABS by May 2026 World Health Assembly. The "global commitment" framing from WHO suggests the process is not collapsing — but the commercial divide (mandatory vs. voluntary benefit sharing) remains fundamental and is not being bridged by political will alone.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any signal that the US re-engagement question is being discussed in the PABS context. US departure from WHO is apparently being treated as a separate track from the agreement negotiations.

**KB connections:** [[pandemic-agreement-confirms-maximum-triggering-event-produces-broad-adoption-without-powerful-actor-participation-because-strategic-interests-override-catastrophic-death-toll]] [[commercial-interests-blocking-condition-operates-continuously-through-ratification-not-just-at-governance-inception-as-proven-by-pabs-annex-dispute]]

**Extraction hints:** Update to Session 04-03 finding: the commercial blocking condition is still active, negotiations extended, May 2026 WHA is the next deadline. The key pattern update: ~100 LMIC bloc maintaining mandatory benefit sharing demand shows the commercial dispute is structural (competing economic models: pathogen access vs. vaccine profit sharing), not tactical. The WHO is framing continued engagement as "global commitment on display" — which is governance form advancing while substantive commercial dispute remains unresolved.

**Context:** The PABS dispute is functionally equivalent to the Montreal Protocol's enabling conditions framework: developed nations are the large commercial actors (pharmaceutical industry interests aligned with wealthy-nation governments) and developing nations are seeking mandatory commercial migration paths (guaranteed vaccine access). Unlike Montreal Protocol where DuPont's migration path was unilateral, PABS requires multilateral commercial migration agreement.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[commercial-interests-blocking-condition-operates-continuously-through-ratification-not-just-at-governance-inception-as-proven-by-pabs-annex-dispute]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Confirms that commercial blocking condition persists through negotiations; May 2026 WHA is the next test of whether PABS can be resolved
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the structural nature of the LMIC-wealthy nation divide as a commercial competition, not merely a political dispute — this is the mechanism explanation, not just the fact of delay
