The latest draft of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic agreement is awash with green highlights – an indication that countries have reached consensus on much of the text.

But the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) announced on Monday that it would not be possible to reach an agreement by December – and countries would push for the adoption of an agreement by the World Health Assembly (WHA) next May.

During the past two weeks of the 12th meeting of the INB, progress has been made on research and development(Article 9), local production(Article 10) and regulatory systems strengthening (Article 14).