G20 presidency: India helps build consensus on key health priorities

This platform will focus on creating an equitable research and development as well as manufacturing network for vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics, especially in the global South, officials said.

Additional Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal said: “Most of the research and development [R&D] and manufacturing is currently restricted to a few countries. Take for example diagnostics — we found that 60% to70% R&D comes from just three to five countries. There is a need to diversify it. The platform will also support logistics and distribution to ensure equitable access. This, however, is an interim measure.”

Agarwal cited the example of Covid-19 pandemic, which saw resource-sharing through global platforms such as Covax but also vaccine inequity between the rich and the poor nations.

He said, “Talks are under way to create a treaty on pandemic that will resolve these issues. This is likely to be done by next May, in time for the next World Health Assembly. From experience, we know it takes at least two to three years for countries to ratify these treaties and create legal frameworks.”

But, he added, future pandemics are “unlikely to wait for this to happen”, and thereby this interim platform.

According to officials, New Delhi’s presidency of G20 has also managed to create a consensus on setting up a global initiative on digital health led by the World Health Organization (WHO) for sharing digital health platforms as public good. The portal, to be launched on August 19 during the ongoing meeting of health ministers in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, will have provisions for investment tracker, ask tracker to create a database on digital needs of different countries, and a library of available platforms.