The Workshop called “From Bench to Vaccination” is organized by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey with coordination of the Turkic Council Secretariat, aims to enhance knowledge of medical professionals from the Member States of the Turkic Council on COVID-19 and vaccine development process and will continue until 27 August 2020.
At the opening ceremony of the workshop H.E.Mr.Baghdad Amreyev, Secretary General of the Turkic Council, Prof. Dr. Emine Alp Meşe, Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Turkey and Chair of the Health Scientific Group, H.E.Mr. Abzal Saparbekuly, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Turkey and Dr. Mehmet Burak Öztop delivered speeches.
Secretary General Amreyev emphasized that health cooperation become priority for the Turkic Council after the Extraordinary Video Summit of the Turkic Council on the COVID-19 pandemic held on 10 April 2020. He briefed the participants on the activities of the Secretariat after the Summit and noted that in a very short span of time, the Secretariat established mechanisms, such as Meeting of the Health Ministers, as well as “Health Coordination Committee”,“Health Scientific Group” consisting of leading scientists, specialists and experts to expand coordination in fight against COVID-19 and other dangerous infections and “Supply Chain Group” to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on socio-economic development of the Parties.
Secretary General underscored that this Workshop is a concrete result of the Health cooperation among the Member States and will be very instrumental in contributing to exchange of information, sharing best practices and collaboration in the field of development of new vaccine for the COVID-19 and other dangerous infections among the scientists, authorities and institutions of the Parties.
Prof. Dr. Emine Alp Meşe, Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Turkey informed that during the workshop best scientists from Turkish Universities will share their experiences with colleagues from the Member States. She stressed that Turkey will continue to contribute to the health cooperation in the Turkic Council and extend its utmost support to the brotherly Turkic States in their fight against the coronavirus.
Ambassador Abzal Saparbekuly stressed the importance cooperation in the field of health, especially collaboration in the development of vaccine as it was proposed by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan during the Extraordinary Summit of the Turkic Council. He also gave information on the scientific potential of Kazakhstan for vaccine development and their readiness to contribute to joint collaboration in the framework of the Turkic Council. The Ambassador expressed his gratitude to Turkish side for their brotherly support and delivered medical supplies to Kazakhstan during the pandemic crisis.
Professors from Cerrahpasha University, Erciyes University, Ege University, Hacettepe University, Akdeniz University, Ankara University, Institute of Vaccine delivered presentations on development and production stages of vaccines, strategies for rapidly developing DNA vaccines, development of plant-based recombinant vaccines, design and criteria for application of clinical studies and trials, animal models used in vaccine studies, as well as on vaccines stability studies on 24 and 25 August.
The Workshop will continue with the presentations of the participants from the Member States on the taken measures and efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine development process in their countries. The participants will also visit Izmir Center of Biomedicine and Genome.
