Day 3 update - 11 October 2018
The summary and recommendations of the three-day proceedings were presented at the concluding session of the `2nd World Conference on Access to Medical Products: Achieving the SDGs 2030 agenda’.
The recommendations were listed and categorised into the following broad areas: Access to Medical Products, including vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and equipment; Research and Development; Capacity-building; Training; Regulatory and Market Access; and Intellectual Property (IP).
In his closing remarks, Dr Balram Bhargava, Secretary, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, committed to carry forward these recommendations. He said that this would require support of Dr V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog to facilitate inter-ministerial coordination. He requested the working group to prepare structural time-lines for achievement of the recommendations.
Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Science and Technology in her concluding remarks listed a few challenges - access to risk capital faced by start-ups, regulatory challenges, and market access, be it local procurement policies or access to global markets. She further added that there is a strong need to build capacity of small companies and manufacturers of products. Fostering new partnerships and working in collaboration with WHO will provide a much needed impetus to accomplish this agenda. Furthermore, the need is to develop an ecosystem that focuses on innovation, preparedness, access to global markets, IP, and trade related aspects.
“We must innovate and focus on areas such as indigenous product development (to substitute imports), antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and manufacturing of medical equipment. The Department of Biotechnology is partnering with SEBI to look at such aspects and we will look for international partnerships in terms of regulating rapid response,” she added.
In a video address, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Deputy Director General, WHO, remarked that India has made an ambitious plan to eliminate TB by launching a TB Free Health campaign and this reaffirms its potential to attain the ‘Health for all’ goal.
“India has human resources, scientific and technical capabilities and the recent launch of Ayushman Bharat initiative reflects strong commitment of the government to work towards SDG 2030 agenda. India has made great contribution towards providing quality and safe medicines for the rest of the world and effective regulatory mechanism is further going to strengthen availability, safety and quality of these products,” she said.
In their concluding remarks, Dr. V.K.Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and Ms Preeti Sudan, Secretary, Health, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, affirmed their full support and reiterated that closer collaboration must be forged with academia, civil society and key stakeholders to develop synergy. “At the outset itself, the honourable Health Minister announced our commitment for the next World Conference on 19-21 November in 2019. I reiterate this commitment and hope to see you all next year here in New Delhi,” she said.
Dr. V.K.Paul mentioned that the recommendations, covering strengthening regulations, innovation, affordability, access to information, capacity-building, commercialization, trade agreement, skill development, and strengthening national and international linkages is a great practical blueprint to work on. He also stated that research and development of traditional medicines and accessibility of medicines to treat rare diseases are some of the important areas that need consideration.