WHO, WIPO and WTO Convene 2026 Health Manufacturing Summit
The heads of the WHO, WIPO and WTO will open a joint symposium on 25 November 2026 to tackle barriers to local and regional health technology production.
The World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization and World Trade Organization will hold their 13th Joint Technical Symposium on 25 November 2026. The event brings together the heads of the three major global economic agencies to address regional health manufacturing.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WIPO Director General Daren Tang and WTO Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are due to open the event in person at the Geneva International Conference Centre. Their remarks will be followed by a keynote address and three thematic panel discussions. The organizations are positioning the event around how to make local and regional production contribute to sustainable access to quality-assured, safe, effective and affordable health technologies.
Panel Topics and Stakeholder Roles
Three thematic panels will dissect the policy, IP and trade levers needed to make local production viable. The symposium will consider conditions needed to build enabling ecosystems for local and regional health products manufacturing. It will also examine demand-side challenges that need to be addressed to make such manufacturing commercially viable.
The first panel will focus on strengthening local and regional health innovation and manufacturing through the integration of public health objectives in policies. The second panel will discuss how IP frameworks can enable ecosystems for innovation and local and regional manufacturing, including the potential and challenges of AI and digital technologies. The third panel will explore trade as an enabler of local manufacturing and robust supply chains.
Event discussions aim to guide policy for sustainable, affordable access to health technologies by integrating health, trade, and IP frameworks to strengthen supply chain resilience. The underlying argument is that manufacturing capacity alone is not enough without regulatory systems, investment, market access and coherent legal frameworks. The event is positioned at the intersection of health policy and industrial strategy, particularly for regions seeking to reduce supply vulnerabilities and expand domestic or regional production capability.
Access and Participation Details
Logistics for public attendance, virtual options and language coverage are now confirmed. The symposium is open to the public, with in-person attendance and virtual participation available on request. Registration remains open until 23 November 2026. The symposium will be held in English only.
The symposium will conclude with discussions aimed at guiding policy for sustainable, affordable access to health technologies.
