BRICS Declaration Urges Progress on Pathogen-Sharing Pandemic Annex

BRICS countries adopted a declaration about sharing access to disease-causing pathogens.

They asked countries to work constructively on an unfinished part of a World Health Organization pandemic agreement.

This part is called the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing Annex.

It explains how countries might share pathogens and receive benefits from related research.

The countries also said each nation controls its own biological resources.

They said countries may make and enforce their own access-and-benefit-sharing laws.

The larger pandemic agreement was created to help the world prepare for future pandemics.

The agreement still cannot move forward fully until countries finish negotiating the annex.