Speakers at IVLC stress on need for partnership with all stakeholders to fight future pandemics

August 25, 2023

There is an urgent need for partnership with all the stakeholders including the academia and regulators to fight future pandemics based on the learnings from Covid-19. There is also need for continuous global disease surveillance and getting fast track regulatory approvals for vaccines. These were some of the key deliberations at the 2nd edition of the India Vaccine Leaders Conclave (IVLC) held between August 22 and August 23, 2023 under the theme "Building Resilient Vaccine Ecosystems" in Mumbai.

The two-day event, which brought together leading experts from around the world, was aimed to showcase how vaccination plays a crucial role in improving global health throughout all stages of life. By connecting people, aspirations and important moments, IVLC demonstrated the significance of vaccination.

The event featured keynote sessions, plenary talks and poster presentations providing an excellent platform for networking opportunities with industry peers. Moreover, this summit offered a unique opportunity for industry leaders, specialists, investors, corporate representatives and business development executives to connect with prominent business figures and enhance marketing opportunities. The event was organised by BlueTech Media. Ashish Chauhan, director, BlueTech Media, conducted the proceedings during the event.

Delivering his keynote address, Dr N K Arora, co-chair, Covid Vaccine Candidate Advisory Committee (DBT) and executive director, INCLEN Trust, New Delhi said, “Lot of infrastructure strengthening for vaccine production has taken place in India in the last two decades. Critical components of infrastructure which were missing have also been strengthened over the last three years of pandemic. The political leadership and high level of policy interventions have supported innovation to make India a global leader in vaccines. Collaboration between industry and academia at national and international level will be critical in exploring the unexplored areas by the industry and academia jointly. We have almost all possible platforms for R&D of new vaccines which includes mRNA, DNA, inactivated, vector based, protein sub-unit, attenuated viruses and bacterias. We are all geared for all kinds of platforms. The challenge is that innovation should be done for both existing vaccines as well as new organisms and the current challenge is in the form of malaria, TB, dengue and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).”

Speaking on the subject of Aseptic Operations in Vaccine Manufacturing, Dr Ashish Sahai, additional director, Serum Institute of India (SII) emphasized that for aseptic manufacturing, good flow of materials, equipment, services and personnel is essential for maintaining the security of the process and process environment. Layout for movement of man and material, incoming material outgoing waste, drain points, intermediate and final products need to be prepared logically so as to maintain a unidirectional process flow and avoid any crisscross movement. Environmental conditions required in different areas or rooms shall be identified depending on the use of that particular room or area. It should be maintained within specific limits through a robust HVAC control system and should be monitored periodically for compliance.

All areas of vaccine manufacturing need a clean room environment for delivering their acquired critical environment, adequate temperature, humidity, air flow air pressure (positive or negative depending on the BSL level) and other environmental requirements are mandatory to provide a safe vaccine without any risk of contamination. Having established required environmental standards through air filtration, air flows, appropriate pressure differentials, it is important that this quality is not compromised. This can be controlled by well-planned man and material flow and by ensuring that all clean room surfaces are designed to be readily sanitized or sterilized, he said.

“Academia and industry collaboration will speed up the design and development of indigenous vaccines against viruses. Moreover, Computational Immunoinformatics approach can further boost the vaccine design in the near future,” informed Dr. Bajarang Kumbhar, assistant professor, Sunandan Divatia School of Science, NMIMS University, Mumbai.
 
“Continuous global disease surveillance capabilities will enable faster outbreak alert triggers, especially in lower income regions. Harmonisation of these alert triggers, as well as viral sequence sharing will save vital moments in the early stages of a pandemic response. Coupled with improved surveillance and swift used of non-pharmaceutical interventions a vaccine in 100 days would diffuse the threat of a new pathogen with pandemic potential,” said Dr Arun Kumar, Preclinical Vaccines Development Lead, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) while highlighting CEPI 100 days mission.

PHARMABIZ.com