Dr Mansukh Mandaviya launches BRICS vaccine R&D centre

“Given India has one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing industries which supplies vaccines to more than 150 countries and meets 65-70 per cent of WHO’s vaccine requirements, India is willing to offer its robust vaccine manufacturing industry for developing vaccines for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries as well as the world,” Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, said while launching the BRICS vaccine R&D centre and workshop on vaccine cooperation through video-conference yesterday.

“This centre will help to pool together complementary advantages of BRICS countries in vaccine research and development and boost the capacity of BRICS countries to prevent and control infectious diseases and provide timely help to other developing countries in need. It will entail basic R&D, pre-clinical and clinical studies and strengthen BRICS countries’ laboratory capacities to develop and standardise assays for testing vaccine candidates, Dr Mandaviya further said.

He highlighted that the BRICS vaccine R&D centre is a welcome initiative to collaborate with countries, share experiences, build collaborations for mutual benefits and accelerate development of vaccine of public health importance. This will enable saving lives and livelihood to propel us towards economic recovery for the citizens of BRICS countries and the world.”

He further stated that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) R&D blueprint and international health regulations should be the guiding principles for this centre and further proposed that BRICS countries should work together to support endeavours such as ACT-A, COVAX, CEPI, etc, to achieve the WHO’s laid target of vaccinating 70 per cent of the world’s population with COVID-19 vaccines by mid-2022. He added that “apart from pandemic and health emergencies, there is an ample scope of collaboration among countries like in the field of vaccine-preventable diseases with high morbidity and mortality, and for those diseases with no vaccines available currently such as AIDS, TB, etc.”

Dr Mandaviya said that vaccine industry in India functions in a dual mode—De-novo product development i.e., within the country and technology transfer through local-global partnership. He invited stakeholders to collaborate with India as “we have prioritised strengthening vaccine research and development efforts for diseases of local as well as global relevance.”

The ceremony was chaired by Wang Zhigang, Minister of Science and Technology, People’s Republic of China, who urged countries to focus upon promoting fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and to promote synergies among BRICS countries through this centre and other such initiatives. Apart from cooperation in vaccine R&D and their experiences in COVID-19 management, the panel discussed strategies to deal with future pandemics cooperatively among BRICS countries.

The meeting was attended by Marcelo Queiroga, Health Minister, Brazil; Mikhail Murashko, Health Minister, Russia; Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, South Africa and delegates, senior representatives and research experts from BRICS countries.