Geneva Health Files

Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative Dear Readers, Thank you for your interest in Geneva Health Files. If you wish to receive newsletters from us, sign up here. In March 2026, we’ve moved to a new home at newsletter.genevahealthfiles.com. Warm regards, Priti Patnaik Founder & Publisher, Geneva Health Files Feel free to write to us: genevahealthfiles@gmail.com ; Find us on BlueSky and Linkedin. Global health is everybody’s business.

Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative Dear Readers, First and foremost: thank you. Seven thousand of you, across 150 countries, have been reading Geneva Health Files since we launched in 2020. That still amazes us, and it’s entirely because of your support that we’re able to keep doing this work. Today we have some exciting news to share. We’ve moved to a new home at newsletter.genevahealthfiles.com, and we’ve built it with you in mind.

Hi, Global Health in Geneva is gearing up for a change at the World Health Organization. The term of its current leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will conclude in 2027. The official nominations for the candidates to lead the UN’s only technical agency will open in a matter of weeks. In this edition, we bring you a guest essay from leading global health scholars - Michel Kazatchkine, Ilona Kickbusch and Peter Piot - where they raise ten questions facing the future leader of the WHO.

Newsletter Edition #149 [Treaty Talks] Hi, In global health, even labs are political. Especially if they sit at the crucial nodes of governance. WHO member states are working to set up a new Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing system that is intended to work across labs and networks. It is the first such attempt to govern the access to pathogen information, and the sharing of benefits during health emergencies.

Hi, In this edition, we bring you a guest essay that helps us understand the implications, and the influence of American budgetary decisions on certain aspects of global health financing.

Hi, We bring you a comprehensive update on the deliberations around the Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing System at the WHO, that took place in Geneva last week. The process has now entered a critical phase with a handful of negotiating days left on the calendar. This is a supremely complex negotiation, that sits at the dazzling intersection of politics and commercial interests. We try to unpack the different influences to help you see the big picture, and bring you some color from behind-the-scenes.

Hi, Typical of looming deadlines, calls are getting louder for the swift and fair conclusion of the negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing system at WHO. We bring you an initial update on the talks underway in Geneva this week. Find below more than a dozen statements from countries and stakeholders that were made at the meeting, earlier this week. Watch out for our follow up on the substantive matters in these talks subsequently.

Hi, Last year, the WHO launched a global effort to increase the real prices of three unhealthy products – tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by at least 50% by 2035 through tax increases.

Hi, To understand how coloniality thrives in global health, sample this: During a discussion on its proposed withdrawal from WHO, Argentina made a statement this week in response to calls for continued engagement and cooperation: “…As a western, civilized country we need to respect rules and work with the whole world.” Palestinian-American thinker Edward Said came to mind at the mention of the word “occidental” in the original intervention in Spanish made by Argentina.

Hi, Forum-shopping is where countries and stakeholders make efforts to get their interests addressed across policy spheres. We also see intra-forum shopping. Today’s story encapsulates such efforts. Technology transfer in public health has been highly contentious. This week at the WHO Executive Board, countries clashed on the terms of technology transfer in the context of a report on anti-microbial resistance.