Social Protection and Health: South-South and Triangular Cooperation to Enhance Capacity to Produce and Deliver Vaccines

Cecilia Oh is the Programme Advisor at the HIV, Health and Development Group of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), based at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, Thailand. Since 2014, she has coordinated the Access and Delivery Partnership, a global project led by UNDP in collaboaration with TDR, WHO and PATH, and aimed at supporting low- and middle-income countries to reinforce their health systems through strengthened institutions and human capacities. Prior to this, Ms Oh was an independent consultant on development, trade and intellectual property issues. In 2010, she was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute, where she worked with the Program on Global Health and Technology Access on global health policy issues. From 2006-2008, Ms Oh was the Trade Policy Advisor for the Asia-Pacific region, based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo. Ms Oh was previously also at the WHO, with the global technical cooperation programme on trade agreements, intellectual property rights and public health. Prior to joining the WHO, she was a Senior Researcher and Legal Advisor of the Third World Network in Geneva, where she worked on international trade, environment and development issues.

Anthony D. So, MD, MPA, is Professor of the Practice and Founding Director of the Innovation+Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As Director of the Strategic Policy Program of ReAct—Action on Antibiotic Resistance, he works with a global network dedicated to meeting the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, and his program serves as the Secretariat to the Antibiotic Resistance Coalition. His research has spanned from rethinking how novel antibiotics are brought to market to documenting the global inequity of how COVID-19 vaccine doses were reserved.

He served as one of the Co-Conveners of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistancethat delivered recommendations to the UN Secretary General in 2019. More recently, he was Co-Chair of the Technical Working Group aligning pharmaceutical innovation incentives to achieve fair pricing for the 2021 WHO Fair Pricing Forum. He has also contributed to a broad range of advisory groups, including the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Accelerating Rare Diseases Research and Orphan Product Development, a WHO expert working group on fostering innovation to combat antimicrobial resistance, the Antibiotic Resistance Working Group of the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology, and the Expert Advisory Group of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines.

Frederick Abbott is Edward Ball Eminent Scholar Professor of International Law at Florida State University College of Law. He has served as expert consultant for numerous international and regional organizations, governments and nongovernmental organizations, mainly in the fields of intellectual property, public health, trade, competition and sustainable development. Professor Abbott is the author of many books and articles in the fields of international intellectual property rights law, public health, international economic law and international law. Recent books include International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy, 4th ed. 2019 (with T. Cottier and F. Gurry)(information below), Emerging Markets and the World Patent Order, ed. with Carlos M. Correa and Peter Drahos (2013)(information below) and Global Pharmaceutical Policy (2009) (with G. Dukes). He served as a member of the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) to the High Level Panel on Access to Medicines appointed by the UN Secretary General in late 2015. He is Co-Chair of the Committee on Global Health Law of the International Law Association, having served as Rapporteur for the Committee on International Trade Law from the inception of its work in 1993 to its conclusion in 2014. He is a member of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the WHO C-TAP program (having also served as consultant to the World Health Organization on a variety of projects), and is consultant to the United Nations Development Program and other multilateral institutions. Professor Abbott is on the editorial board of the Journal of International Economic Law (Oxford), the WIPO-WTO Colloquium Series and the Journal of Intellectual Property Rights (NISCAIR/India). He regularly serves as panelist for the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.  He is on the panel of arbitrators under the dispute settlement mechanism of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, and he is on the panel of arbitrators of the South China International Arbitration Center (Hong Kong)(SCIAHK) and the Shenzhen Court  of International Arbitration (SCIA). He has served as counsel to governments in WTO dispute settlement proceedings, and in national court proceedings. Prior to entering academia, Professor Abbott was partner in a major US law firm and specialized in international business regulation and technology-related transactions. He was based in San Francisco (1977-1983 and Silicon Valley (1984-1989). Professor Abbott is Executive Director of the Global Medicines Council, a non-profit organization addressing medicines innovation and access, and Co-Director of the Global Foresight Group addressing pandemic preparedness, survillance and response. He is a graduate of the Yale Law School and the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor (Dr) Narendra Kumar Arora is Executive Director, at the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN), New Delhi (since 2005), and a former faculty of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Haematology, and Nutrition at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India (1983-2005). As a paediatrician and public health expert, Prof Arora has made major contributions at both national and global levels to the Immunization sector (Pulse Polio Immunization Program, vaccine hesitancy, and active & passive AEFI surveillance). Prof Arora served as a Chair/Member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) from 2010 to 2016 and South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (SEAR-ITAG). Currently, Prof Arora serving as a member of the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS); Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent health and nutrition (STAGE) and Member of COVAX Independent Allocation of Vaccines Group (IAVG).

In India, Prof Arora has been involved in numerous national scientific, research, and academic committees constituted under the MoHFW, DBT, BIRAC, DST, ICMR, and UGC. To steer to national centers of excellence in clinical care, research, and training, the Government of India appointed Prof Arora as a President (2018) to two newly established National Institutions of Eminence in India (AIIMS-Patna and AIIMS-Deoghar). He is also currently serving as a Chair, Co-Chair and a Member on various COVID-19 related research activities in India.

Dr. Nakorn Premsri is the Director of National Vaccine Institute, Thailand, appointed in February 2019. He has had extensive experience in health promotion, disease prevention and control as well as public health program management. Dr. Nakorn completed his medical training from the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, in 1993 and started his career at the Ministry of Public Health. In 2003 he worked as a research investigator in the world’s largest HIV Vaccine Phase III trial (RV144, Thai Trial) and became the Director of Principal Recipient Office for the Global Fund to Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) in 2009, before being appointed the Director of Bureau of Epidemiology, Department of Disease Control in 2017.

As a Director of National Vaccine Institute, Dr. Nakorn proposed for the regional initiative entitled ASEAN Vaccine Security and Self-Reliance (AVSSR) and brought it to the highest political forum known as the ASEAN Summit in November 2019, where the Leaders' Declaration on AVSSR was adopted with the support of the ASEAN Health Minister Meeting (AHMM). Regarding that, with his leadership over the regional project, he has been assigned to be the AVSSR Focal Point, facilitating all ASEAN Member States (AMSs) in implementing the AVSSR Strategic and Action Plan, 2021-2025, aiming for regional vaccine security.

During COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Nakorn was tasked with coordinating COVID-19 vaccine accessibility with the Director-General of the Department of Disease Control and relevant Ministry of Public Health Executive Officials in charge of pandemic control and situation management across the country throughout a pandemic. He also worked for the Thai government in making bilateral agreement negotiations of vaccine procurement and proposed Blueprint Access to COVID-19 vaccine for Thai population (the national COVID-19 vaccine access strategy), supported funding for domestic vaccine development and promote national vaccination campaign as a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Program (ACIP), and provided the risk communications across community during a pandemic.

Rupa Chanda is the Director of Trade, Investment and Innovation. Prior to that, she was a Professor of Economics at IIM Bangalore and the Dean of Programmes at the institute. She has worked as an Economist at the IMF and briefly served as Head, UNESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia in New Delhi. Prof. Chanda received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University and her Bachelor’s from Harvard University. She teaches Macroeconomics and International Trade and has received teaching awards. Her research interestsinclude the WTO, trade in services, regional integration and migration. She has undertaken research and professional assignments forinternational and Indian organizations and has published extensively in the form of books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports. She is active professionally as a research guide, reviewer, and member of several expert committees. She was member of the WHO’s Review Committee on the functioning of the International Health Regulations (2015-16) and  the WHO’s Expert Advisory Group, International Recruitment of Health Personnel (2019-20).

Srinivas Tata is the Director of the Social Development Division of ESCAP. He has 16 years of experience of working with the United Nations. He is a physician by qualification with experience in finance, social policy, public health and programme management. He has served in the wide range of positions. He has previously served as the Chief of the Capacity Development and Partnerships Section of the Strategy and Programme Management Division, and provided support to all ESCAP Divisions and Offices for the formulation and implementation of technical cooperation projects and managed partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders. He also served as the Chief of Social Policy and Population Section in the Social Development Division

from 2012 to 2016, focusing on population ageing, demographic change, migration and health. He was also posted as the Deputy Chief of the Regional Commissions New York Office from 2010 to 2012. Prior to joining the UN, he was posted as Director (Public Health) in the Ministry of Health in the Government of India, dealing with financing and implementation of large health programmes, and WTO negotiations on affordable access to medicines. He also worked as an Under Secretary in the Central Ministry of Finance dealing with indirect taxation policy and tariffs on a range of commodities.