Harsh Vardhan inaugurates World Conference on Access to Medical Products

On 19 Nov, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan, inaugurates the ‘ 2019 World Conference on Access to Medical Products Achieving the SDGs 2030’.  The conference was launched with the objective to track the progress on recommendations from the 2018 World Conference for access to medical products for achieving UHC in the context of SDGs.  During the inauguration Minister said that knowledge sharing from this world conference need to be utilized for larger public welfare.  This Conference will spur innovative thinking around issues surrounding provisioning of affordable, quality medical products as part of public health care delivery systems.

The inaugural session saw the release of ‘Position Paper-2019 World Conference on Access to Medical Products–Achieving the SDGs 2030’, ‘White Paper on Safety of Rotavirus Vaccine in India: Smart Safety Surveillance Approach’ and the ‘National Guidelines for Gene Therapy Product Development and Clinical Trials’. Access to essential medicines is a priority in the Regional Flagships on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for the South-East Asia Region. Following the UN High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on UHC, the 2019 World Conference seeks to take forward the international and national agenda on access to medical products. The main objective of the 2019 World Conference is to track the progress on recommendations from the 2018 World Conference for access to medical products for achieving UHC in the context of SDGs.