WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization. Seventy-fourth report

Overview

The seventy-fourth meeting of the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization was held from 18 to 22 October 2021 via video conference due to the travel restrictions imposed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic. The meeting was opened on behalf of the Director-General of WHO and the Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health Products, by Dr Clive Ondari, Director, Health Products Policy and Standards. Dr Ondari acknowledged the hard work of all of the WHO expert committees in addressing both the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 activities of WHO.

The WHO response to COVID-19 was continuing at all levels of the organization, and was geared towards accelerating the development and availability of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. Dr Ondari noted the crucial ongoing contribution of the Committee to all three of these pillars of the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, and expressed the view that the speed of the Committee in facilitating the development of WHO written and measurement standards for COVID-19 had in part being made possible by its previous experience of other emerging pathogens.