Sree Chitra Tirunal Insitute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), a statutory body and an Institute of National Importance under the administrative control of Department of Science and Technology (DST) and World Health Organization (WHO) have officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as part of the Covid Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), now known as the Health Technology Access Pool (H-TAP). This MoU is a significant step forward in ensuring fair and equal access to critical technologies for various countries in the world. 

 DST and SCTIMST, along with WHO announced the signing of the MoU in New Delhi today. Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of Science and Technology was the chief guest of the function. Dr. VK Saraswat,  Member of NITI Aayog and President of the Institute,  Dr. A. Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Dr. Roderico H. Ofrin,  WHO Representative in India also attended the event. 

The WHO - led C-TAP is intended to facilitate and support a transparent global mechanism for sharing and pooling knowledge, intellectual property and data related to existing or new COVID-19-related health technologies to scale up their production, supply, availability and affordability in all countries of the world.  C-TAP evolved to the Health Technology Access Pool (HTAP) and assumed a broader mission that remains anchored in pandemic preparedness and response and also addresses priority diseases and conditions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, SCTIMST developed an RNA isolation kit and an RT-PCR kit. Both of these kits were transferred to industry and successfully commercialized. In fact, the RNA isolation kit was one of the earliest technologies released into the Indian market during the pandemic from an academic institution, and the World Economic Forum highlighted this as one of the successful technologies that emerged during the pandemic. 

As part of the C-TAP program, the WHO, in collaboration with Department of Science and Technology (DST) and SCTIMST, is enabling access to technologies to all countries in the world.

 

-NS-

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