PM Narendra Modi said on Thursday that the World Health Organization (WHO) must be reformed to create a more resilient global health security architecture, significantly simplify the approval process for its vaccines and treatments and keep the supply chain stable and predictable.

In his speech at the second global Covid-19 virtual summit, Modi highlighted India’s role in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and that New Delhi would expand its genome sequencing network to neighbouring countries. PM was invited to the summit by US President Joe Biden and said India has adopted a “people-first” strategy to fight the pandemic and is running the world’s largest vaccination campaign, adding nearly 90 people each 1 per cent of adults and more than 50 million children in the country are vaccinated.

Modi also called for flexibility on WTO rules related to trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS). A year and a half after, India and South Africa pushed for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to produce vaccines.
PM noted that India last month laid the groundwork for the country’s WHO Centre for Traditional Medicine “to provide this ancient knowledge to the world”.

“It is clear that a coordinated global response is required to deal with future health emergencies. We must build a resilient global supply chain that enables equitable access to vaccines and medicines,” Modi said. “WTO rules, especially TRIPS rules, need to be more flexible. WHO must be reformed and strengthened to create a more resilient global health security architecture,” he said at the opening ceremony.

India has been urging TRIPS exemptions to ensure the expansion of vaccine production for equitable and global access. “We also call for simplifying the WHO approval process for vaccines and therapeutics to keep supply chains stable and predictable. As a responsible member of the international community, India is ready to play a key role in these efforts,” Modi said.

The Genomics Consortium of India has made significant contributions to the Global Virus Database, adding that New Delhi will expand the network to neighbouring countries. “In India, we use our traditional medicines extensively to complement our fight against COVID and build immunity, saving countless lives. Turning to India’s handling of the pandemic, Modi said the country has fully vaccinated nearly 90 per cent of adults and more than 50 million children and can produce 5 billion doses this year vaccines.

“We have delivered over 200 million vaccine doses to 98 countries through bilateral and COVAX. India has developed low-cost Covid mitigation technologies for testing, treatment and data management. We have already delivered these capabilities to other countries,” Modi said. “Our allocation to the annual healthcare budget is the highest ever,” Modi said.

On September 22 last year, Modi attended the inaugural Covid-19 Global Virtual Summit hosted by Biden. The second summit aims to inspire new actions to address the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and build a stronger global health security architecture. President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the key leaders, spoke at the summit.

The White House fact sheet on the government’s and other partners’ commitments at the summit said India would continue expanding booster vaccine coverage to eligible populations and expanding vaccination coverage to those under 18.

It said the country will continue to work towards full vaccination coverage for its adult population, ensure healthcare workers, and increase the number of health and wellness centres as funds are allocated to the 2022-2023 domestic health budget. According to the fact sheet, India will also increase the number of integrated public health and regional disease control laboratories and biosafety laboratories.

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It said the country is stepping up “zoonotic surveillance and will continue to provide vaccines and work to expand the SARS-CoV2 Genome Consortium to neighbouring countries.”