Equity in pathogen genomic surveillance | Science

When a disease outbreak occurs, sequencing the responsible pathogen and posting its genome to a public database facilitates research into diagnostic tests and vaccines. However, the benefits of sharing genomic data quickly and widely are not equally shared. Many outbreaks begin in lower-income countries (1), where health workers and scientists collect samples and generate sequences that are then used by well-resourced institutions to create proprietary tests, therapeutics, and patents (2). When there is little return for sharing data, countries may decide to share less [as Indonesia did in 2006 (3)], making the equity problem a security problem as well. Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Pandemic Agreement in 2025 (4), and they are now negotiating an annex called Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) (5). The current terms of the annex will help in emergencies but overlook the steps required to establish enduring equitable practices.