The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has announced a landmark agreement with vaccine manufacturer CSL Seqirus to reserve a share of pandemic influenza vaccine production for countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, including Antigua and Barbuda, in the event of a future influenza pandemic. According to Antigua News Room, the agreement was reached following an international competitive procurement process and more than a year of negotiations.
The deal establishes a mechanism that reserves a fixed percentage of CSL Seqirus's global pandemic influenza vaccine output for participating PAHO Member States, giving those countries the option to access an initial reserved allocation when a pandemic strikes.
"This agreement is a direct response to the hard lessons of COVID-19 and a major step forward in strengthening health security and pandemic preparedness across the Americas," said PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa. "Through our Regional Revolving Funds, countries are joining forces to secure a reserved share of vaccine production, helping protect those at risk when it matters most."
Under the terms of the agreement, CSL Seqirus will lead pandemic influenza vaccine development and facilitate technology transfer, drawing on its decades of experience in influenza science and large-scale manufacturing. Part of the production will take place in Argentina through a collaboration with Sinergium Biotech, bolstering regional manufacturing capacity and supply chain resilience — priorities that gained renewed urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This agreement puts pandemic preparedness best practices into action, bringing together reserved doses, regional manufacturing capability, and a long-term public-private commitment," said David Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CSL Seqirus. "We're proud to establish this kind of partnership in Latin America and the Caribbean for the first time."
Sinergium Biotech President and CEO Alejandro Gil highlighted the depth of the existing relationships underpinning the deal. "This agreement builds on a long-standing collaborative relationship we have maintained with PAHO since 2021 and with CSL Seqirus since 2010," he said. "The infrastructure and human resource capacities developed at Sinergium over the past 15 years now enable us to guarantee countries in the region access to quality products to respond to future pandemics."
The agreement is among the first arrangements of its kind designed specifically to address the disadvantages middle-income countries have historically faced in global vaccine markets. By pooling demand through PAHO's Regional Revolving Funds, Caribbean and Latin American nations can negotiate as a bloc, securing terms comparable to those available to wealthier countries.
PAHO will allocate reserved doses based on epidemiological evidence and public health risk, prioritising the most vulnerable populations. The arrangement is intended to shift the region from a reactive to a proactive posture in pandemic response — a lesson drawn directly from the inequities exposed by the global scramble for COVID-19 vaccines.
"For the first time, countries of the Americas are positioning themselves on more equal footing in a future global health emergency — not as individual markets, but as a region," Dr. Barbosa added. "This agreement shows what is possible when we act together to leverage the power of pooled procurement."
PAHO also stressed that preparedness must remain an ongoing priority as avian influenza and other zoonotic threats continue to emerge. Influenza viruses, particularly those of zoonotic origin, remain among the most likely drivers of future pandemics.
