India and UK launched Virtual Vaccines Hub

India and UK launched Virtual Vaccines Hub

India and the UK have launched a joint virtual vaccines hub to facilitate the global delivery of vaccines. The new virtual hospital initiative will help both countries reach out to populations that are often overlooked for medical treatment.

What is the Virtual Vaccines Hub?

Virtual Vaccines Hub (VVH) is an initiative of the UK-based Medicines and Healthcare organizations that is being launched by the two countries' respective Central Vaccine Research Institute (CVRI) under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). It aims to make it easy for people in India and the UK to access clinical trials data, track and report results, and find easy ways for doctors and pharmacists to work together more effectively to produce the best vaccines possible.

What is the Objective of the Virtual Vaccines Hub?

The aim of Virtual Vaccines Hub is to distribute vaccines for Covid-19 and other deadly viruses by sharing knowledge on clinical trials and regulatory approvals and get vaccines to people who need them most in a safe, secure and energy-efficient way. 

Importance of the Virtual Vaccines Hub

• The hub will also foster partnerships to develop innovation “moonshots” that can define vaccine delivery over the next decade.
• It will enable British and Indian experts to share knowledge on clinical trials and regulatory approvals and get vaccines to people who need them most in a safe, secure and energy-efficient manner.
• This Serum Institute and Oxford University partnership demonstrates the UK-India relationship at its best: a vaccine developed in the UK and made in India 
• According to the British High Commission, India supplies over 50 per cent of the world’s vaccines and 25 per cent of the Britain’s National Health Service’s (NHS) generic drugs. 

• A global pandemic requires a global solution. Scientific cooperation has made breakthroughs on corona virus vaccines at record-breaking pace 
• The UK-India Vaccine Hub will now build on innovations, to bring COVID crisis and also to an end and protect against future pandemics 
• A closer UK-India cooperation on medicines and vaccines approvals will ensure speedy access for the UK to Indian-produced pharmaceuticals and help safeguard future supplies to the National Health Services of Britain. 
• A closer UK-India relationship is a part of a wider UK Programme to focus on partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.

Global initiative to vaccinate the World

• COVAX is one of the main Global initiative to vaccinate the World. It is one of the three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched in April by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission and France in response to this pandemic.
• Bringing together governments, global health organisations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society and philanthropy, with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
• The COVAX pillar is focussed on the latter. It is the only truly global solution to this pandemic because it is the only effort to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth.
• Millions of doses made will be distributed to the world’s poorest people through the global COVAX initiative, in partnership with World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the vaccine alliance.