GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Countries trying to thrash out a global agreement on handling future pandemics are hoping to seal the deal Friday after weeks of creeping progress in exhausting talks.

The talks are being held behind closed doors at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) headquarters in Geneva.

The 32-page draft agreement contains 34 articles.

The main disputes revolve around issues of access and equity: access to pathogens detected within countries, and access to pandemic-fighting products such as vaccines derived from that knowledge.

Other tricky topics are sustainable financing, pathogen surveillance, supply chains, and the equitable distribution of not only tests, treatments and jabs, but also the means to produce them.

Scarred by the devastation caused by Covid-19 — which killed millions, shredded economies and crippled health systems

— WHO member countries have spent two years trying to hammer out binding commitments on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.