“Let us facilitate robust innovation ecosystem for defining standards for innovative technologies and create enabling environment for startups in healthcare to deliver affordable medical products including assistive technologies for all”, said Dr. VK Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, as he chaired the session on Medical Technology Pathways for Innovative Medical Devices, here today.
Calling the Conference a valuable platform for sharing experiences and advancing increased access to medical products globally, Mr. Arun Singhal, Special Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, said “This conference will spur innovative thinking around issues surrounding provisioning of affordable, quality medical products as part of public health care delivery systems. There is a need to leverage regulatory networks such as South East Asia Regulatory Network for strengthening regulatory systems in countries”, as he chaired the Session on “ Leveraging Regulatory Networks for Access to Quality, Safe and Affordable Medical Products Including Digital Tools for Strengthening Regulatory Systems, the Opening Plenary Session of the day.
The session on Smart safety Surveillance for strengthening Pharmaco-vigilance systems in countries, highlighted the key learnings from the smart safety surveillance approach in countries. The success of India in the Rotavac vaccine safety monitoring leading to the development and release of the White Paper on Rotavac Vaccine Safety in India in the 2019 World Conference, was highlighted in the session. “It would be useful to incorporate learnings and next steps from smart safety surveillance approach in the safety monitoring systems within countries”, said Dr. Nata Menabde, Executive Director, WHO in the UN, while chairing the session.
The honourable Minister had announced the dates of the next 2020 World Conference to be hosted in New Delhi, India from 23rd to 25th September 2020 during the Inaugural Session of the 2019 World Conference. The meeting in 2020 will be a precursor to the International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities from 28 September to 2nd October 2020 at New Delhi.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan delivered a video address and highlighted the need for regulatory systems strengthening, including participating in regulatory networks such as South East Asia Regulatory Network, for promoting access to medical products. he reiterated the commitment of WHO for affordable medical products to people.
“The country would benefit from tracking R&D investments in healthcare to further access to medical products” said Dr. Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India, while chairing the session on “Funding and Investments in Medical Products R&D: Role of Data Tracking Initiatives”.
Dr Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India said that drug discovery must include traditional medicine and AYUSH systems. Moreover, integrated approaches of modern and traditional are necessary for optimal health care for our people.
Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, Scientist G and Head, Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research chaired the session on endgame for HIV, TB and Malaria where-in the current landscape, policy initiatives and Innovative medical products to facilitate expeditious elimination of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in national and global context were discussed. Various best practices and possible mechanisms for fostering collaboration between national government agencies and international players on delinking the costs of R&D from price of treatment and to promote capacity building of local manufacturers for large scale production of quality drugs of public health importance diseases were discussed in depth.
In the last plenary session on Day 2, advantages of repositioned drugs in decreasing development costs and time to market due to availability of previously collected pharmacokinetic, toxicology, and safety data was discussed. “The countries would benefit from a data sharing platform on repurposing among countries for sharing and exchange of information”, said Dr. Dharmendra Singh Gangwar, Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, chairing the session on Re-purposing of Medicines for Reduced Approval Timeframe, Decreased Costs and Making Use of Existing Data.
The main sessions covered on Day 2 were: Leveraging Regulatory Networks for Access to Quality, Safe and Affordable Medical Products Including Digital Tools for Strengthening Regulatory Systems; Smart Safety Surveillance for Strengthening Pharmaco-vigilance Systems- Progress Updates and Next Steps; Moving Towards Smarter Clinical Trials– Changing the Paradigm in the Context of Global and Multi Regional Clinical Trials; Medical Technology Pathways for Innovative Medical Devices; Medical Products for End game for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria; Global Partnerships for Drug Discovery, Innovation and Technology Development: Scaling up Adaptive Technology Solutions for Medical Products and Re-purposing of Medicines for Reduced Approval Timeframe, Decreased Costs and Making Use of Existing Data.
Mr. Jaideep Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Dr Mandeep K Bhandari, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Stephen Kennedy, Principal Investigator, PREVAIL: Joint US-Liberia Research Partnership, University of Liberia, Dr. V G Somani, Drugs Controller General of India and Dr K S Sachdeva, Deputy Director General, Tuberculosis, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare also joined the sessions.
