SCO Member Countries Deliberate about Leveraging the Works Undertaken in India on Cost-Effective Diagnostics and Therapeutics

· Department of Pharmaceuticals Conducts Virtual SCO Event on the Topic ‘Collaborations’

The Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India conducted a virtual conference with the member states, observers and dialogue partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 2^nd May 2023 on the topic "Collaborations". The event was conducted in coordination with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

The conference was chaired by Awadhesh Kumar Chaudhary, Senior Economic Advisor, Department of Pharmaceuticals. During the conference very detailed and enriching presentations were made by the following experts:

· Prof. V. Ravichandiran, Director, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Kolkata and Dr Shridhar Naryanan, Senior Technical Advisor, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance on the topic “Improving access and enhanced manufacturing of therapeutics with reference to neglected tropical diseases & rare diseases and research on newer therapeutics for inherited rare diseases”.

· Dr Nivedita Gupta, Scientist-F and Head, Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases (ECD) Division, Indian Council of Medical Research on the topic “Developing and Validating New Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases”.

· Dr. Manisha Shridhar and Dr Madhur Gupta, World Health Organisation and Dr. Kalaivani Ganesan, Department of Biotechnology on the topic of “Development and validation of new platform technologies for the diagnostics and therapeutics”.

· Ms Marta Fernández Suárez, Chief Technology Officer, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and Mr. Bhaskar Malladi, Association of Diagnostic Manufacturers of India on the topic “Development of cost-effective diagnostic panels/kits for molecular testing of diseases, including rare diseases at pre-natal and post-natal stages”

· Dr. Y.K. Gupta, Principal Advisor India Strategy Development Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnerships (GARDP) and Mr. Yann Ferrise on the topic “Green technology, and process efficiency for API”

· Dr. P.K.S. Sarma, General Manager (GM) & Head – Technical, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council representative on the topic “Public-Private Partnerships for Scaling up Technologies from Lab to Market”.

The presentations were greatly appreciated and few members of the SCO gave an update on the work happening in their respective countries and the scope of collaboration with India. COVID-19 and emerging threats from health emergencies have made the countries realise the value of collaboration in various research and development activities in the field of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. India has become a strong manufacturing base in this area. India has always been at the forefront to assist various countries in times of public health emergencies and will continue to do so.

The conference provided deep insights into the cutting edge work being undertaken in various departments of the Government of India and how this can be leveraged to collaborate with the members of the SCO and other partner countries.