Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), is proposing a certification treaty to be backed by "multilateral organisations" which will give vaccines greater mobility. Poonawalla gave this clarion call on Monday during the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore.
“Multilateral organisations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation should take it upon themselves to harmonise the certification of vaccines," Poonawalla said. While talking to a news agency PTI on the sideline of the conference he said "the world needs it if we want to be prepared in the future".
He said, “I will keep advocating for it (the proposal), though getting the world leaders to agree on anything is extremely difficult.”
Poonawalla cited the example of climate-related treaties agreed upon by global leaders.
“They (the leaders) will have to take it up, and I’m sure India will play its role in leading such an important initiative,” SII CEO added.
“One country can’t push it,” he responded when asked if India could take up this globally important initiative. He mentioned the challenges faced in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines at border crossings.
"There are many concerns that different countries have, given the diverse demographics which have to be taken into consideration,” he added.
Poonawalla also stressed the need to scale up the health insurance business in India through international partnerships, pointing out that SII had invested Rs 10,000 crore (USD 12,29,486 ) in the last two years of the pandemic in the capacity building compared to Rs 15,000 crore (USD 18,44,229) invested in the past five decades.
Poonawalla is also going global with SII’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities and has worked out partnerships with Oxford BioMedica in the United Kingdom and South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare in Africa.
(With PTI inputs)