The Principal Vaccine Manufacturing Summit for Developing Countries

Dr. Tathagata Dutta is a pharmaceutical scientist with over two decades of leadership experience across global pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations, having served as President, Chief Scientific Officer, Executive Director, and Managing Director & CEO. He holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Queensland, Australia, specializing in RNAi therapeutics for cancer. A pioneer in dendrimer-based drug and gene delivery in India, his expertise spans drug delivery systems, gene therapy, vaccines, RNAi therapeutics, nanomedicine, and rare diseases. He has authored numerous publications, patents, and book chapters.

Dr. Rajni Kant is a renowned public health expert with over four decades of experience in vector-borne diseases, particularly malaria, dengue, JE/AES  control through innovative approaches, as well as his path-breaking work during Covid-19, One Health and Pandemic preparedness. As the Former & Founder of Director of ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Gorakhpur, ICMR-Chair-Disease Elimination  and Scientist G and Head, Policy & Communications at ICMR Headquarters, New Delhi,  Dr. Kant has played a pivotal role in establishing state-of-the-art health infrastructure, developing health communication ecosystem, translating research into policy and fostering collaborations across institutes. He has published more than 150 research papers, popular articles, editorials, op-ed, etc in high impact national and international Journals and has received many prestigious awards and prizes. He has also been  conferred the Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc) and is the Member of various science academies and associated with the editorial board of many journals. He is also engaged as a visiting Professor SEARCH, Gadchiroli and Senior Adviser, Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) to make societal impact.

His contributions extend beyond academia, with notable efforts in social media literacy, community engagement, Health Communication, Health Policy translation and historical documentation of health science including the scintillating work on Gandhi and Health. Dr. Kant’s relentless commitment to public health is exemplified through his leadership in conducting TB prevalence survey, COVID sero-surveys, vaccine inter-changeability study, tackling stigma associated with COVID-19, and implementing innovative programs such as Mission SHAKTTI for creating awareness among school children towards Gandhian way of life. Recognized with prestigious awards and accolades Dr. Kant’s legacy resonates through his profound impact on health policy research, and community well-being.

Dr Ankur Mutreja, PhD, FRSB is currently a Director of External Affairs and Health Security at PATH operating from the UK and India. An experienced global health professional who has worked in industry, academia and public health, Dr Mutreja has significant expertise in R&D translation, tech-transfer, strategy, contract negotiation, tailored communication, and policy recommendation. In his previous role at CEPI where he was the country in-charge for India and Head of Global South Partnerships portfolio, he played an instrumental role in integrating R&D, Manufacturing, Access, Partnerships, Communications and Resource Mobilization plans of CEPI into a Global South Strategic Roadmap. Prior to CEPI, as a Group Leader of Global Health, he led a large international team of managers, scientists, and policy experts at the University of Cambridge where he managed several public health projects in vaccines, diagnostics, WASH, surveillance, and epidemiology. He has also served in the roles of Project Leader at the MSD-Wellcome Hilleman Laboratories and Industry-Academia Bridging Fellow at the Novartis Vaccines for Global Health, with a mission of making affordable vaccines suitable for LMIC needs. In his career, he has successfully raised funds, led, and delivered on large programs from Wellcome, WHO, BMGF, MRC, ESRC, TSB, Innovate UK, NIHR, BRC, Alborada Trust, DBT, ICMR and Hamied Foundation, among several others. Dr Mutreja has an excellent publication record and is on the board of and holds honorary positions at numerous key institutions and agencies of high repute.

Dr. Vaibhav Salvi is a physician by training with specialization in Cardio-vascular sciences.

He has more than two decades’ experience in Clinical Research and Medical Affairs.

His research work has been presented at various national and international and he has more than three dozen publications to his credit published in journals like British Journal of Pharmacology, Journal of Pharmacology, Diabetes Medicine, Journal of Electrocardiology and Diabetes Care to name a few.

He is life member of Indian Society of Clinical Research and TransCelerate Inc.

Dr. Prem Singh is a distinguished public health physician with over 23 years of experience in immunization and child health programs across Southeast Asia and Africa. His expertise spans health systems strengthening, polio eradication, vaccine supply chain logistics, immunization campaigns, new vaccine introductions, monitoring and evaluation, action research, demand generation, COVID-19 pandemic response, infection prevention and control, biomedical waste management, and vaccine-preventable disease surveillance.

Dr. Kapil Maithal is currently working as President – Vaccines and Diagnostics at Zydus Lifesciences, India. He has over 25years of experience in the field of Vaccines, Biologicals and Diagnostics Research, Development and Manufacturing.​

He did his doctorate in biochemistry from University of Delhi, followed by post-doctoral research in structural biology fromIndian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. Subsequently, he joined as a faculty at University of Delhi in Biomedical researchbefore moving to industry, where over the years he has led the development of numerous viral, bacterial, toxoid,polysaccharide, conjugate and protein subunit vaccines for human and veterinary use. Recently, he also led the research &development of World’s First Licensed human DNA Vaccine, ZyCoV-D® against COVID-19.​

He also has interest in global public health and has served as a member of Independent Review Committee of GAVIAlliance, Geneva, Expert Working Group of “Vaccines & Immunosera for human use” of Indian PharmacopoeiaCommission and Technical Expert Committee of BIRAC, Govt. of India. He has also been on the recruitment panel ofNISCAIR, CSIR; Gujarat Biotechnology University and advisory board for BIRAC -GMP Project of CSIR-IMTECH and School ofBiotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.​

Dr. Maithal is also a fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK and Royal Society of Biology, UK. He has number of patentsand international publications in peer reviewed journals to his credit and is also a reviewer to number of peer reviewedjournals including Vaccine, NPJ Vaccines, International Journal of Medicine and Medical sciences, PLOS ONE etc.

Over 23 years of experience in biotechnology, focusing on protein engineering, drug discovery, and recombinant protein vaccines, with 18 publications and 7 patents.

Currently serves as Head of Pre-clinical R&D at Mynvax Private Limited, overseeing cell and molecular biology, protein engineering, and analytical and process development.

Previous roles include Manager of R&D at Novozymes South Asia, Co-supervisor for a joint PhD program, and Head of Protein Sciences at Aurigene Discovery Technologies.

Completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University in the Department of Cell Biology.

Holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from the Indian Institute of Science and an M.Sc.   in Biochemistry from the University of Hyderabad.