In a step towards strengthening collaboration on tackling Covid-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday announced a virtual UK-India vaccines hub which will see experts from India and the UK joining forces to deliver vaccines for coronavirus and other deadly viruses.
“Scientific cooperation has made breakthroughs on coronavirus vaccines at record-breaking pace and the UK-India vaccine hub will now build on these innovations, to bring this crisis to an end and protect us all against future pandemics,” said Raab who met with Modi to signal a closer UK-India partnership through a 10-year roadmap and enhanced trade partnership.
The vaccines hub is aimed to enable British and Indian experts to share knowledge and best practices on clinical trials and regulatory approvals and enhance cooperation on development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines. The hub will also build partnerships to develop innovation ‘moonshots’ that can define vaccine delivery over the next decade and beyond.
With India already supplying 25% of UK’s National Health Service’s generic drugs, 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 NHS.
In another new agreement between India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the two agencies decided on more frequent discussions on UK-India vaccine and pharmaceutical regulations, improving standards and sharing information to control against the trade of unlicensed products.
