PM Modi calls for streamlining approval of vaccines by WHO
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) must be reformed to build a more resilient global health security architecture and especially pitched for streamlining its approval process for vaccines and therapeutics to keep the supply chains stable and predictable.
In his address at the second global Covid virtual summit, Modi, highlighting India's role in combating the coronavirus pandemic, said New Delhi would extend its genomic sequencing network to the neighbouring countries. The prime minister, who participated at the summit following an invitation by US President Joe Biden, said India adopted a “people-centric” strategy to combat the pandemic and that it was running the largest vaccination campaign in the world, adding close to 90 per cent of the adult population and more than 50 million children were already vaccinated in the country. Modi also called for making flexible the WTO'S rules relating to trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), in comments that came over a year-and-half after India and South Africa pushed for temporarily waiving intellectual property rights for producing COVID-19 vaccines to effectively deal with the pandemic.
The prime minister noted that India laid the foundation of a WHO Centre for Traditional Medicine in the country last month to “make this age-old knowledge available to the world”. Noting that the pandemic continued to disrupt lives, supply chains and to test the resilience of open societies, the prime minister said a coordinated global response is required to combat future health emergencies.
“It is clear that a coordinated global response is required to combat future health emergencies. We must build a resilient global supply chain and enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines,” Modi said.