DCVMN CEO Rajinder Suri took part in the 5th edition of the India Vaccine Leaders Conclave, organised by BlueTech Media® on 20 August, joining a strong line-up of industry, regulatory, and global health voices for two days of dialogue on the future of vaccines.
On the opening day, following Dr. Kapil Maithal, as Chief Guest, Mr. Suri delivered a keynote titled “India 2026: Revolutionizing Global Health through Innovation and AI-driven Supply Resilience.” The address opened with DCVMN’s role and strategic focus areas in advancing global health, before turning to the enablers shaping India’s next-generation vaccine ecosystem: building innovation, resilience, and global impact; policy and regulatory advancement; R&D innovation and indigenous development; and the acceleration of vaccine innovation through AI, digital transformation, and manufacturing excellence.
A significant part of the keynote was devoted to AI across the vaccine lifecycle. Mr. Suri made the case that AI is no longer experimental, but is already embedded across every stage from discovery and design, through clinical development and manufacturing, to supply chain management and pharmacovigilance. What now differentiates progress is not the technology itself, but strategy and partnerships.
He walked through the key technologies powering this shift, pointing to what he described as the emerging era of computational vaccinology. Zooming out from the technical, Mr. Suri underlined two principles that must anchor this transition:
1) The democratisation of AI is essential if developing-country vaccine manufacturers are to benefit from and contribute to it;
2) Responsible innovation is non-negotiable.
Later in the day, Mr. Suri joined the panel “Regulatory Delays: Streamlining Approvals and Aligning Global Standards,” moderated by Dr. Arjun Dang, whose energy brought sharpness and warmth to the discussion in equal measure, along with the other panelists Dr. Hitt Sharma, Dr. Santosh Taur, Dr. Sridhar Yeshamaina who contributed deeper insights with their varried perspectives in the field. Mr. Suri spoke to industry expectations of regulators, the real-life application of PABS, and the single regulatory-capacity gap across DCVMN member countries that most concerns us today, reinforcing throughout that collaboration between manufacturers and regulators is not an option but a prerequisite for progress!
