The WHO Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework

Abstract
After years of negotiations, the World Health Organization (WHO) reached agreement on a pandemic influenza preparedness (PIP) framework for the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits in April 2011.1 The framework addresses a troubling controversy—should low- and middle-income countries share influenza virus specimens with WHO without assurances that benefits derived from sharing will be equitably distributed?