This week, PAHO will launch a platform to boost regional vaccine manufacturing efforts, beginning with the first in a series of meetings to promote greater coordination across countries and to enlist partners from both the public and private sectors to turn this idea into reality,” Dr. Etienne said at her weekly media briefing.

Explaining the drive for the new platform, Dr. Etienne said that “limited production and unequal distribution of vaccines” compromise the region’s pandemic response and “put public health at very high risk.” Reliance on imports makes Latin America and the Caribbean more vulnerable, she added. “Our region imports 10 times more pharmaceuticals than we produce.”