The Global Coalition for Local and Regional Production, Innovation and Equitable Access highlighted the importance of strengthening local and regional production capacities during the 10th National Symposium on Science, Technology and Pharmaceutical Assistance, held in Brasília, Brazil.
Speaking during a session on the Global Coalition, Assistant Executive Secretary Marco Nascimento reflected on the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to reduce vulnerabilities in global health supply chains.
Nascimento stressed that no country can be fully autonomous in the production of all health technologies. Instead, countries and regions need diversified capacities and partnerships that provide alternatives when global supply chains are disrupted.
Citing Brazilian diplomat Celso Amorim, he recalled that “diversification is the new name of independence.”
For Nascimento, this idea helps explain why strengthening local and regional production is essential to health resilience: the objective is not for every country to produce everything, but to ensure that countries are not left without options during health emergencies.
Building resilience through local and regional production
The Global Coalition was created in response to structural inequalities exposed by COVID-19, including the high geographical concentration of production capacity, vulnerabilities in global supply chains and their disproportionate impact on developing countries and people in vulnerable situations.
Its goal is to promote equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other health technologies by connecting local and regional production, innovation and international cooperation.
Nascimento also emphasized the importance of regional coordination. Local production, he said, cannot mean that every country produces every technology. Countries will increasingly need complementary production capacities, trusted partnerships and mechanisms that can ensure access and supply during emergencies.
About the Symposium
The symposium, held on 10–11 August in Brasília, provided a space to discuss the future of science, technology and pharmaceutical assistance within Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS). It is part of the preparatory activities for the 18th National Health Conference, which will take place in 2027, contributing to the national debate on strengthening the SUS.
The 10th National Symposium on Science, Technology and Pharmaceutical Assistance was promoted by the Integra Project, an initiative of the National School of Pharmacists Institute (ENFar), Fiocruz, the National Health Council and the Ministry of Health’s Secretariat of Science, Technology and Health Innovation, with support from Fenafar and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
About the Global Coalition
The Global Coalition is one of the most important outcomes of Brazil’s G20 Presidency.
The signing of the Geneva Inception Letter during the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly, on 20 May 2025, officially established the Global Coalition for Local and Regional Production, Innovation and Equitable Access. It marked a key milestone in advancing efforts to address several interconnected global health challenges.
These include the concentration of scientific capacity, research and development (R&D), and production in the life sciences, technology, and health sectors in a small number of countries; fragile supply chains; regulatory asymmetries; and the limited integration between innovation, production, and access, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
The initiative emerges within this context and from a commitment to addressing health inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Coalition advances a new model for the production of and equitable access to essential health technologies – such as vaccines, therapies and diagnostics – particularly for neglected diseases and persons in vulnerable situationglobally, especially in developing countries.
