COVID-19 vaccines development, safety assessment and utilization

Dr Kochhar serves on the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE); WHO SAGE Working Group on COVID-19 vaccines; WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines Safety Preparedness; Co-Chair of the WHO ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools)-Accelerator Ethics & Governance Working Group; COVID-19 Outbreak Expert group UK Parliament and the UK Government COVID-19 Expert group.

For COVID-19 vaccines, she is helping to develop the WHO SAGE policy recommendations for the use of the different vaccines. She helped lead the development of the “WHO SAGE roadmap for prioritizing uses of COVID-19 vaccines in the context of limited supply” and the “WHO SAGE values framework for the allocation and prioritization of COVID-19 vaccination”; helped develop the “Critical Evidence Questions For COVID-19 Vaccines Policy Making” and the “WHO COVID-19 Vaccines Safety Surveillance Manual”. This is work being utilized for international and national policy making and vaccine introduction globally.

She has led the development of standardized vaccine templates for the benefit-risk assessment of vaccines. The templates have been recommended by WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), and are being utilized by COVID-19 and other vaccine developers.