Brasilia, April 10, 2024 – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) supported today Brazil’s proposal to create an alliance for local and regional production and innovation in health, to be led by the G20.
“The Alliance proposed by Brazil’s G20 presidency could promote enabling policy and legal environments and end-to-end ecosystems for equitable access, innovation and production, to ensure public return on these investments”, stated Judit Rius Sanjuan, Director of the Department of Innovation, Access to Medicines and Health Technologies at PAHO, during a G20 technical event, held in Brasilia, Brazil.
She also reiterated the Pan American Health Organization's commitment to continue strengthening production, innovation, and equitable and sustainable access, including through PAHO Regional Revolving Funds for pool procurement of vaccines, medicines, and other health supplies.
“This is clearly an area where the G20 can make a difference, based on its collective capacity,” noted Stéphanie Seydoux, WHO Envoy for Multilateral Affairs. “We stand ready to bring our technical expertise upon the G20’s request in support to the alliance for local and regional production and innovation proposed by the Brazil presidency,” she added.
At the same event, WHO’s Chief Scientist, Jeremy Farrar, highlighted that to increase equity it is essential to focus on the future, rather than only transferring knowledge and technology that is currently available.
“Science is progressing at an incredible pace and it is very difficult to keep up. We must anticipate future science and think about how to use it. That means involving our communities, societies, health systems and health workforce to ensure that they are prepared for that transformation”, said WHO’s Chief Scientist.
He also encouraged participants to not only focus on production, but also the whole process around which production can happen and the people. “People in the regulatory environment, in the scientific environment, and the research and development environment, people in countries knowing that they have a career path and a future in the areas that they've chosen”, he stated.
In addition, Farrar mentioned that ecosystems are composed by more than only institutions. “Behind institutions there are people who need to be supported and particularly young people coming into science, research development, regulation, ethics, and everything else that goes with it. I also think that is an opportunity for jobs, for economic growth, as well as for health”, he said.
G20
The Group of Twenty (G20) is an international economic cooperation forum made up of 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brasil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Russia, Türkiye, United Kingdom and USA) and two regional bodies: the African Union and the European Union. The Presidency of the G20 is currently held by the Brazilian government.
