BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre Teleconferencing
A meeting of BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre was held online on 17 September 2024 as part of the Russia’s BRICS Chairship in 2024 and was organized by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. This meeting was attended by representatives of the ministries of health of the BRICS countries and national coordinators of cooperation within the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre.
The purpose of the event was to introduce new participants to the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre and give them an opportunity to present their institutions and proposals for cooperation, as well as to discuss interaction within the framework of the Centre’s activities. As the new members of the BRICS, representatives of I.R. Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia as presented their capabilities in vaccine development and production in this meeting. Dr. Delaram Doroud (Director of Research, Technology and Education of Pasteur Institute of Iran) was the head of the Iranian delegation at this conference and presented Iran's capabilities in the past and present, emphasizing the future potential of the Pasteur Institute of Iran in developing modern vaccine technologies for the prevention of infectious diseases (emerging and re-emerging), based on the monitoring of potential biological threats.
The current research priorities of the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre include selecting platforms for accelerated vaccine development, including against potential disease X, optimizing and expanding national vaccination schedules, and identifying primary vaccination targets for the BRICS countries based on national and global priorities. At the meeting, the Russian side presented its project to create an E-Platform for the Scientific Developments of the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre, which could help strengthen horizontal links between participants in the BRICS vaccine market and the development of joint projects, including exploratory scientific research, vaccine development, preclinical and clinical studies of vaccine formulations.