The World Health Organization and the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority convened regional partners in Brussels on 13 January 2026 for urgent talks on improving pooled procurement of emergency medical countermeasures, including vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments.
The workshop exposed a critical blind spot in global health security: while regional pooled procurement mechanisms exist, they currently cover only about half of the world’s countries. This leaves approximately 100 nations, areas, and territories without any formal system to collectively purchase life-saving medical supplies during epidemics and pandemics.
“Regional mechanisms are essential, but global coordination is indispensable so as not to leave anyone behind,” said Tim Nguyen, Head of the Medical Countermeasures Unit at WHO. His warning came as participants reviewed hard-learned lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and the mpox epidemic, where fragmented procurement led to severe inequities in access.Pooled procurement allows multiple countries or institutions to combine purchasing power, negotiate better prices, and secure faster access to scarce supplies. Yet the Brussels discussions revealed that existing mechanisms vary widely in maturity and face common challenges, including how to define and operationalize “equity” during a crisis.
Santiago Cornejo, Executive Manager of the Pan American Health Organization’s Regional Revolving Funds, stressed the need for a shared understanding of equity in allocation decisions. Without this, even well-intentioned systems risk repeating past failures where wealthy nations secured supplies while poorer ones waited.
The meeting brought together diverse regional players, including the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, ASEAN partners represented by Thailand and Singapore, and the Regional Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative. The European Commission’s DG HERA Director-General, Florika Fink-Hooijer, underscored that “health threats do not stop at borders” and that procurement preparedness must be strengthened in peacetime.
Discussions focused on practical solutions: how to design procurement mechanisms before emergencies strike, how to coordinate across regions during crises, and how to capture shared principles for collaboration. Participants agreed to develop a working document distilling lessons learned and to pursue follow-up exchanges later in 2026.
The workshop operates under the interim Medical Countermeasures Network Secretariat, which is working to ensure timely and equitable access until a formal WHO Pandemic Agreement enters into force. For the 100 countries currently outside regional procurement frameworks, the urgency of that work cannot be overstated.
Source: WHO
