My sister Ngozi, my brother Daren, our host and chair for this symposium.
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, it’s a pleasure to join you once again.
This forum is immensely valuable in bringing together leaders from public health, intellectual property, and trade policy to sit at the same table.
It is here that we recognize that access to medicines and health products is not only a scientific issue, or a legal issue, or a market issue. It is all of these together.
And because of that, constructive dialogue across sectors is not optional – it is essential.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a powerful reminder of how health, trade and intellectual property can either work together to resolve crises – or deepen them.
The WHO Pandemic Agreement, adopted by WHO Member States in May, represents an important milestone.
And as you know, Member States are now negotiating an annex to the Pandemic Agreement, the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system – the PABS Annex – to ensure rapid detection and sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential, and equitable and timely access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
We are hopeful that the negotiations will be completed in time for the PABS Annex to be adopted at next year’s World Health Assembly, so the Pandemic Agreement can be opened for ratification and finally enter into force as international law.
WHO supports the need for intellectual property protections that drive innovation, but we must make innovation and intellectual property work for the poorest and most vulnerable.
Innovation must be driven by public health need – not only by purchasing power – but there can always be a balance, and they are not mutually exclusive.
Our collaboration with WTO and WIPO, alongside many partners, can help drive this vision forward.
Access to health products is not only a pandemic challenge. It is a daily reality for billions of people.
The latest Global Monitoring Report on universal health coverage, published just last week with the World Bank, shows that 4.6 billion people still lack access to essential health services, including health products.
And 2.1 billion people – more than one in four – face financial hardship because of the burden of paying for health services and products out of their own products.
These are not just numbers. They represent children going without vaccines, mothers without safe delivery care, families selling assets or falling into poverty because they cannot afford medicine.
And at this moment, that reality is worsening.
Around the world, we are facing a global health financing emergency.
Development assistance has been disrupted. Fiscal space in many regions is shrinking. Essential services are being cut back or stretched beyond capacity.
The huge gains that we have made in the past 25 years against maternal and child mortality, HIV, malaria and TB, are at risk of reversing. Current projections show that under-5 child mortality is expected to rise in 2025 for the first time this century, reversing years of decline - primarily due to the funding cuts.
This is why our trilateral work on access and affordability remains urgent.
Universal health coverage will not be achieved unless we address the barriers to access to health products head-on—pricing, supply, technology transfer, regulatory capacity, and fair financing.
Access to medicines is one of the cornerstones of universal health coverage.
But there’s no value in medicines that don’t work.
That’s why today’s symposium focuses on one of the greatest threats facing our collective future: antimicrobial resistance – AMR.
This is not a slow-moving problem. It is here, now, accelerating, and affecting every health system in the world.
Bacterial AMR alone kills more than one million people each year.
Surveillance data from more than 100 countries confirms that resistance is rising across regions, across pathogens, across drug classes.
AMR threatens to reverse decades of progress – not only for infectious diseases, but for surgery, maternal care, cancer treatment, and every form of modern medicine that relies on antibiotics.
But we are not powerless. At the UN General Assembly last year, world leaders agreed to reduce global AMR-related deaths by 10% by 2030.
They committed to expanding access to antibiotics, vaccines and diagnostics that are safe, effective and affordable.
And crucially, they agreed to explore new financing models and incentives to support research and development.
This is where our trilateral cooperation is indispensable.
Antibiotics are a case study in market failure. When new antibiotics work well, stewardship requires us to use them sparingly.
So, the commercial incentive is low, even when the public health need is high.
We need new approaches – pull incentives, subscription models, delinked financing, open science platforms.
I am encouraged that many countries and research organizations are already experimenting with new models. They are testing feasible solutions.
Today we will hear some of these experiences. Let us learn from them, scale them, and ensure that innovation is matched with access.
At the same time, we must build research and manufacturing capacity in regions where it is currently limited.
No region should depend on a handful of suppliers for critical antimicrobials.
No country should be last in line for new drugs.
No family should face financial ruin in seeking treatment for infection.
This is not only a health issue – it is an issue of equity, fairness and justice.
Dear colleagues, members of our three organizations, and partners around the world:
Let us continue this work – together. Let us move from commitment to implementation, from promising models to sustainable systems, from isolated success to global impact.
Because together, we can address AMR.
Together, we can expand access to medicines for all.
And together, we can accelerate progress toward Health for All.
Thank you. I look forward to a rich and productive exchange with all of you today.