World Health Assembly must recognise pharmacy’s pandemic preparedness role
Ireland’s Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has endorsed the preliminary consensus on the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Agreement, reached in Geneva by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body.
Carroll MacNeill praised the collective effort, emphasising the importance of global commitment to safeguard against future pandemics. Interim Chief Medical Officer Professor Mary Horgan highlighted the agreement’s role in uniting the world to respond swiftly and equitably to future health crises.
Horgan said: “This agreement represents very positive progress in strengthening global pandemic prevention and preparedness and ensures that the world will be equitably united to respond swiftly to any future pandemics.”
The Pandemic Agreement, initiated in December 2021, will be formally adopted at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025, marking a significant step in global health governance.
The Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 19–27 May 2025. The theme of this year’s Health Assembly is: One World for Health.
Community pharmacy pandemic preparedness
Clare Fitzell, Head of Strategic Policy at the Irish Pharmacy Union, and president of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, told Euractiv: “Community pharmacies across Ireland and Europe experienced firsthand the impact of COVID-19 and saw the importance of rapid collaboration and responsiveness across the healthcare sector in supporting the population during an unprecedented public health crisis.”
“Pharmacists are among the most accessible and trusted healthcare professionals in local communities. Community pharmacies are a reliable source of advice and play a key role in reinforcing public health messaging. Their widespread presence across Europe provides an essential infrastructure to support mass vaccination programmes, as well as a professional healthcare setting in which to conduct point-of-care testing.”
Resilience needed
Fitzell remarked that community pharmacists support the work of the World Health Organisation and recognise the collaborative efforts involved in finalising the draft global agreement aimed at improving how the world prepares for and responds to pandemics.
She explained that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many European countries successfully facilitated vaccination services through community pharmacies. Pharmacists were empowered to extend prescriptions and provide emergency supplies, with many of these regulatory flexibilities maintained post-pandemic.
Fitzell said these measures have contributed to more resilient and responsive health systems.
“As the World Health Assembly prepares to consider the new Pandemic Agreement, it is crucial that governments fully acknowledge and support the contribution of community pharmacists,” she said, adding, “Replicating models such as Ireland’s High Tech Medicines Scheme across Europe, and integrating pharmacies into pandemic planning, will be key to ensuring health system resilience and safeguarding patient access when the next crisis arrives.”
Pharma innovation, partnership
Eimear O’Leary, Director of Communications and Advocacy at the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, told Euractiv that while the IPHA does not have an individual position on the Pandemic Agreement, it is fully aligned with the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) position.
O’Leary pointed to remarks by the IFPMA’s David Reddy on the conclusion of the 13th meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) for a WHO instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
Reddy said that “Intellectual property protection and legal certainty are essential for the innovative-based pharmaceutical industry to invest in high-risk R&D and enable voluntary partnerships that we will need in the next pandemic.”
He hoped that in subsequent negotiations, Member States would maintain the conditions for the private sector to continue innovating against pathogens with pandemic potential.
Reddy noted, “The pandemic agreement is a starting point. Pharmaceutical companies will remain critical to future pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, driving the innovation necessary to develop and deliver the medicines and vaccines we will need when the next pandemic hits. It is essential that our experience is drawn upon again as the agreement is turned into something that can be implemented in practice.”
[Edit By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]
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