The Health | April , 2021

BY KHIRTINI K KUMARAN

Inaugurated by IsDB President Dr Bandar Hajjar , the event was in conjunction with the virtual signing ceremony for transforming IsDB Regional Office in Kuala Lumpur into a Centre of Excellence .

The launch witnessed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU ) and supplementary agreement between the Malaysian government and IsDB . It is mandated to promote cooperation on Islamic finance , halal initiatives , science , technology and innovation ( STI ) ecosystems , reverse linkages for capacity sharing and resource mobilisation .

The virtual launch ceremony was followed by a STI webinar . It included welcoming remarks from Senior Advisor to the President on STI and Supervisor , Communities Outreach Division Dr Hayat Sindi and keynote statements from Minister of Science , Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin and Minister of Health Datuk Sri Dr Adham Baba .

The STI webinar hosted a roundtable discussion about

Dr Bandar Hajjar lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic regarding the global health supply chain ’ s fragility . It was discussed how successful global partnership models could play a vital role in mitigating this challenge by leveraging innovative local solutions to support local production capacity .

Vaccine supply inequity

In his keynote statement , Dr Adham shared : “ The Ministry of Health has benefitted from the collaboration with international organisations such as the World Health Organisation ( WHO ), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation ( OIC ) and IsDB over the years . “ There have been numerous meetings and capacity development programmes with member countries of the organisation . Such programmes have strengthened health measures to establish security in the global value chains of diagnostics , therapeutics and vaccines , which are important as we combat Covid-19 .”

He further shared the pandemic response initiative and innovations set up by the Malaysian government and the MoH .

“ Given that the world is at risk of being exposed to other pandemics in the future , through the National Science Council , the National Vaccine Development roadmap was drafted as the long-term plan for Malaysia to manufacture vaccine locally ,” said Dr Adham .

Sharing his experience in procuring the Covid-19 vaccines , Khairy noted there was inequity when it came to vaccine supply .

“ Developed countries , whose companies have manufactured these vaccines , have cornered much of the initial supplies .

“ This is a huge wake-up call for not just Islamic countries but the developing countries as well . This tremendous inequality has been laid bare by the pandemic and resulted in every man for himself syndrome throughout the world ,” added Khairy .

Applauding IsDB for the Covid-19 vaccination fund that will be utilised by the IsDB member countries , Khairy said : “ It is crucial to call on countries , especially in the Islamic world and the developing world , together with IsDB , to work together to build the capacity to pool the resources .”

Tackling health issues

Several key renowned panellists participated in the roundtable . Among them were Dr Sergio Carmona , Acting CEO and Chief Medical Officer , Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics ( FIND ); Prof Datuk Dr Asma Ismail , president of the Academy of Sciences ; and Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar , Group Managing Director of Duopharma Biotech Berhad .

Alan Donnelly , Executive Chairman Sovereign Sustainability and Development and Convener of the G20 Health and Development Partnership , moderated the session . The discussions covered STI policy framework and experience in developing STI ecosystems to promote local innovations and technology transfer and strengthen health capacity in Malaysia , focusing on combating Covid-19 .

Regarding tackling health issues in the