Express News Service
NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the world must be ready to ‘prevent, prepare and respond’ to the next global health emergency and urged to open innovations for the benefit of the public in general.
Addressing the G20 Health Ministers’ meeting in Gandhinagar, he also that India is on its way to ‘eradicate tuberculosis well ahead of the 2030 target’.He underlined that the Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us that health should be at the center of our decisions.
“Time showed us the value of international cooperation, whether in medicine and vaccine deliveries or in bringing our people back home. As we saw during the pandemic, health issues in one part of the world can affect all other parts of the world in a very short time,” the prime minister said in his virtual address.
He pointed out that under the Vaccine Maitri initiative, India delivered 300 million vaccine doses to more than 100 countries, including many in the Global South. He said that “there is a need for bolstering global health systems to anticipate, prepare, and respond to future health emergencies, together, as the world is interconnected today.”
“Let us open our innovations for the good of the public. Let us avoid duplication of funding. Let us facilitate equitable availability of technology,” said the prime minister.
Modi said this initiative will allow countries in the Global South to close the gap in healthcare delivery and will take us one step closer to our goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage. “In India, we are following a holistic and inclusive approach,” he remarked.
Modi said that the establishment of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Gujarat’s Jamnagar earlier this year was an important step in that direction. The Prime Minister said that the decision to simultaneously hold the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine along with the G20 health ministers’ meeting would intensify efforts to harness the potential of traditional medicine.
The G20 meeting being held from August 17 to 19 is pivoted on three key priorities of the G20 Health Track, including the first: prevention of global health emergencies, preparedness, and response – with a focus on antimicrobial resistance and the ‘One Health’ framework.
The second: strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector with a focus on access and availability to safe, effective, quality, and affordable medical countermeasures. And, the third: is digital health innovations and solutions to aid universal health coverage and improve healthcare service.
India must meet US drug norms: US health secy
Indian pharma companies need to meet US standards if they want to continue exporting their drugs to America, US Secretary for Health and Human Services (HSS) Xavier Becerra said Friday Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing G20 Health Ministers’ meeting in Gandhinagar, Becerra said, “Meeting the drug standards would not only help India continue its trade with the US specifically but all maintain the standards and its growth graph moves across the world.”