50% Of 8 Billion Vaccine Doses Worldwide Manufactured In India: Union Health Secretary

Of eight billion vaccine doses manufactured and distributed across world in last one year alone, half of m were manufactured in India, said Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava. She said this while dressing annual India Leership Summit 2024, organised by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum here today.

Pharmaceutical Industry Success

Punya said India has emerged as a global leer in pharmaceuticals, being third-largest producer and a key supplier of generic medicines. This sector's success has resulted in substantial savings for healthcare systems worldwide, including a table contribution to US healthcare system. 

" contribution of Indian pharmaceutical industry is evidenced by fact that India has highest number of US FDA-approved pharmaceutical plants outside of United States. This is 25 per cent of total number of US FDA-approved plants outside of US. " medicines from Indian companies, I am told, provided 219 billion USD savings to US healthcare system in 2022 and a total 1.3 trillion USD savings between 2013 and 2022," she stated.

Healthcare System Reforms

country also les in vaccine production, with a significant share of global manufacturing, underscoring its role as "pharmacy of world", she said. health secretary said 50 per cent of all vaccines manufactured in world are from India. "In last one year alone, of eight billion vaccine doses manufactured and distributed across world, four billion doses were manufactured in India," she said. 

To ensure a robust healthcare system, she ted that India has reformed medical education, replacing outdated regulatory frameworks with National Medical Commission Act and related laws. This has led to a significant increase in medical and nursing college numbers and enrolment, dressing disparities in healthcare professional availability, she said.

Strengning Indo-US Partnerships

Consequently, India is poised to produce a competent health workforce that meets both national and global needs, she ted. Punya emphasised that government efforts have progressively improved quality, scale and cost-effectiveness of healthcare in India. "It is a testament to our expanded healthcare services that out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), which is borne entirely by households, has declined by 25 percent points as a share of total health expenditure between 2013-2014 and 2021-2022," she said. 

On strong Indo-US Partnership in health sector, Union health secretary said, "Our mutual and shared priorities in field of surveillance, pandemic preparedness and anti-microbial resistance are underscored in deep partnership between National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and US Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)." "India appreciates NCDC and ICMR Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETP) organised in collaboration with US CDC. We are happy to inform that over 200 Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) officers have been trained so far with ar 50 currently undergoing training through various programmes," she ded.

Collaborative Health Initiatives

India and US have also agreed to initiate a joint strategic framework for optimising bio-pharmaceutical supply chain, for optimising and strengning global supply chains and to reduce dependencies on single-source suppliers through Bio-5 alliance. In 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden committed to accelerating fight against cancer, leing to inaugural US-India Cancer Moonshot Dialogue launched in August. Punya highlighted that this initiative aims to enhance US-India biomedical research cooperation, particularly focusing on cervical cancer. 

It includes partnerships with institutions like AIIMS and Tata Memorial Hospital and has evolved into Qu Cancer Moonshot Initiative, she said. "Reflecting India's vision of 'One World, One Health', a grant of 7.5 million dollars has been dedicated to cancer testing and diagstics in Indo-Pacific region. India will also support riorapy and cancer prevention efforts in region, contributing 40 million vaccine doses under GAVI and Qu programs to assist several countries in need of se services," health secretary said. Punya ted that India-US partnership in healthcare exemplifies collaborative efforts to dress shared health challenges.