Book Release
From Lab to Jab: Improving Asia and the Pacific’s Readiness to Produce and Deliver Vaccines – Pralok Gupta, FPM 2011
About:
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the complexities and challenges associated with the development, production, and distribution of vaccines and the consequent risks and vulnerabilities.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the complexities and challenges associated with the development, production, and distribution of vaccines and the consequent risks and vulnerabilities arising from the lack of affordable and equitable access to essential vaccines and other health products.
This book identifies the challenges across the entire vaccine value chain from “lab to jab”—from research and development to the production and cross-border delivery of vaccines and their related inputs involving trade, transport, logistics and regulatory approvals, and finally to the distribution and administration of vaccines. These challenges include market failures, financing gaps, barriers to technology transfer, tariff and non-tariff barriers, transport and logistical constraints, lack of regulatory harmonization across countries, and limitations in the capacity of national health systems.
From Lab to Jab: Improving Asia and the Pacific’s Readiness to Produce and Deliver Vaccines underscores the need for unilateral and collective measures, such as coordinated efforts for financing, procurement, capacity building, needs assessments, and technology transfer. These can be implemented by leveraging trade and investment agreements, ensuring greater regulatory coordination, facilitating investments in national health systems, and sharing data, knowledge, and good practices across the region. The timely discussions call on vaccines to be viewed as a global public good. Hence, a combination of national, regional, and global mechanisms and platforms will be needed to ensure affordable and equitable access to vaccines in preparation for future pandemics.
