Attendance an online digital event on Dec. 04, 2024 entitled “COVID Lessons Learned: Sustainable Regional Manufacture to Achieve Health Equity & Security”. The event was offered by International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed global health inequalities and security challenges. In response, the WHO, WTO, and other organizations advocated for regional diversification in vaccine and drug manufacturing. For such efforts to be sustainable, strong demand from countries and multilateral procurement agencies was deemed essential.

This webinar addressed strategies to ensure the sustainability of regional pharmaceutical production capacities, including:

• Reforming procurement mechanisms to prioritize regional approaches.

• Aggregating regional demand to enhance volume predictability.

• Securing commitments from national governments to source pharmaceutical products regionally.

• Prioritizing the review of parallel dossier submissions.

• Harmonizing regulations and implementing mutual recognition agreements.

• Facilitating the free movement of pharmaceutical products across regions.

Chair:

- Mathew Cherian, VP of Operations and R&D, ReVive Biotechnology, USA.

Co-moderator:

- Nikolina Biskic, Regulatory Affairs Manager, Switzerland.

Panellist:

- Stavros Nicolaou, Group Senior Executive, Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, South Africa.