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LONDON/GENEVA, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The Trump administration wants countries that receive U.S. health aid to share data with Washington about pathogens that could spark epidemics as a condition of the funding, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. The U.S. wants countries to share pathogen samples and genomic sequencing data within five days of an outbreak, according to the document from the U.S. State Department, but it does not guarantee that any drugs or vaccines developed as a result of that exchange would go to the countries affected. Sign up here. That imbalance could lead to a repeat of the inequalities experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and other outbreaks, where poorer nations struggle to access the tools developed to fight disease despite often first identifying the threat, some experts said. It could also undermine ongoing negotiations at the World Health Organization, where countries are trying to thrash out this very issue in a way that means lower-income countries are not left behind again, as part of the near-complete pandemic treaty. The U.S. document is a memorandum of understanding that both the U.S. and recipient countries would sign. It includes targets for tackling conditions such as HIV, as well as on maternal mortality and measles vaccination. The document covers aid up to 2030, but the pathogen sharing agreement would last for 25 years. The document follows the revolution in U.S. aid that has taken place under President Donald Trump's "America First" policy. The country’s new global health strategy, released in September, aims to move recipient countries towards “self-reliance”, and to sign bilateral deals as soon as possible. BYPASSING WHO-BACKED DEAL In response to questions about the document, a senior State Department official said the U.S. was committed to transparency and accountability in its global health strategy, without elaborating further. Three global health officials said they had also seen the document and were aware that governments are discussing it with the United States. "These bilateral agreements ... will bypass the WHO and the foundations of solidarity and equity we have been trying to build here," said Michael Kazatchkine, former head of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria, at a WHO meeting in Geneva on Friday to discuss the pathogen-sharing piece of the pandemic treaty. Kazatchkine represents the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response convened by the WHO to scrutinize the global response to COVID. WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told Reuters the agency had no information about the document. He said the pathogen access and benefits-sharing agreement member states are negotiating at WHO would both enable sharing materials "and, on an equal footing, the rapid, timely, fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the sharing or utilization of such materials". Reporting by Jennifer Rigby and Emma Farge in Geneva, additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Andrew Heavens Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Jen is the Global Health Correspondent at Reuters, covering everything from pandemics to the rise of obesity worldwide. Since joining the news agency in 2022, her award-winning work includes coverage of gender-affirming care for adolescents in the UK and a global investigation with colleagues into how contaminated cough syrup killed hundreds of children in Africa and Asia. She previously worked at the Telegraph newspaper and Channel 4 News in the UK, and spent time as a freelancer in Myanmar and the Czech Republic. Emma Farge reports on the U.N. beat and Swiss news from Geneva since 2019. She has produced a string of exclusives on diplomacy, the environment and global trade and covered Switzerland’s first war crimes trial. Her Reuters career started in 2009 covering oil swaps from London and she has since written about the West African Ebola outbreak, embedded with U.N. troops in north Mali and was the first reporter to enter deposed Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s estate. She co-authored a winning story for the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize on Russia’s diplomatic isolation in 2022 and was also part of a team of journalists nominated in 2012 as Pulitzer finalists in the international reporting category for coverage of the Libyan revolution. She holds a BA from Oxford University (First) and an MSc from the LSE in International Relations. She is currently on the board of the press association for UN correspondents in Geneva (ACANU).
