The Future of Vaccine Equity and India’s Global Health Leadership

Editors' Note

Had COVID-19 vaccines been more equally distributed, an estimated 1.3 million people could have been alive today. That's the leading takeaway from a Think Global Health miniseries about the future of vaccine manufacturing—guest edited this week by award-winning journalist and former CFR press fellow Amy Maxmen.

For the series' first installment, Maxmen describes how the mRNA technology transfer hub of the World Health Organization (WHO) could allow emerging economies to "protect their populations from pathogenic threats during pandemics and beyond."

Rick Bright, CEO of Bright Global Health, continues that discussion by analyzing how the WHO's Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines boosted Vietnam's capacity to make influenza vaccines locally during the 2005 outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza. Though the plan ended in 2016, it was a success the mRNA technology transfer hub could strive to emulate.

The series rounds off with Prashant Yadav, academic director of the INSEAD Africa Initiative. He sketches the history behind India's rise as a global vaccine manufacturer, noting the crucial steps after the country gained independence in 1947 that motivated domestic drug manufacturing and ultimately reduced pharmaceutical costs.

Keeping the focus on India, Animesh Roul, executive director of the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict in New Delhi, provides our recommended feature of the week. He explains how the country's Hindu philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world as one family) is setting up India to become a global health leader.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor