Vaccine World Summit to be held in New Delhi 1-3 March, 2011

From the 1st to the 3rd of March 2011, vaccine leaders from developing and developed world will meet at Vaccine World Summit in New Delhi. The event will be hosted by IMAPAC, in partnership with DCVMN (Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network).

Participants will be discussing strategies to tackle global public health challenges including appropriate pandemic surveillance programs, low cost and fast vaccine manufacturing technologies, innovative adjuvants and delivery systems, vaccine research funding opportunities and the latest clinical results of new and next generation vaccines fighting life-threatening infectious diseases such as cholera, malaria, dengue, AIDS and rotavirus infection, just to name a few.

As a matter of fact, over 9.5 million people die each year due to infectious diseases – nearly all live in developing countries.

Current vaccines and past vaccination programs have now controlled 10 major infectious diseases. Unfortunately, many of these diseases, except for smallpox, are still rampant in third world and developing countries, which can mean a comeback anywhere, where vaccines begin to be delayed or stopped.

The Indian vaccine industry has always played an important role in helping the world fight infectious diseases. According to Biotechnology Industry Organization, the Indian vaccine industry currently caters to 60 to 70 percent of global requirement of basic vaccines procured by U.N. agencies for children. In addition to this, Indian vaccine manufacturers are also partners in several global initiatives to develop cost-effective vaccines against the threats of H1N1, meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, etc.

However, challenges such as "access to new technology", "increasing cost", "inadequate disease burden data", "funding", "multiple set of regulation and regulators" still remain as major stumbling blocks for Indian vaccine manufacturers to develop more innovative vaccines, according to a recent interview with K V Balasubramaniam, Managing Director of Indian Immunologicals.

Recognizing the industry's needs and supported by the DCVMN, Vaccine World Summit is slated to bring together a distinguished panel of speakers including representatives from WHO, Indian government regulators, NGOs and some of the industry's top minds to address challenges and explore opportunities.

Attendees can expect to hear from Dr Jaques Cholat from Sanofi Pasteur, Sri Prasanna Kumar Pradhan, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, of the National Rural Health Mission, Dr Reinhard Gluck, Zydus Cadila, Dr Suresh Jadhav of the Serum Institute of India, Dr Altaf Lal of the MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories, Dr. Krishna Ella, founder of Bharat Biotech International, Dr Michael Callahan from DARPA, Dr Nihal Abeysinghe of the World Health Organization and many more.