Egypt’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations Office in Geneva Ahmed Ehab Gamal El-Din stressed on Friday the necessity of benefitting from untapped manufacturing capabilities of some developing countries to increase the global production of vaccines.

Gamal El-Din said, during a conference organised by the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), that benefiting from the capabilities of developing countries would help bridge the gap between the demand for vaccines and their global supply.

This conference - the first of its kind - is meant to discuss means of promoting the WTO’s role as part of the international response to the coronavirus pandemic.

It saw the participation of major drug-making companies, the heads of concerned international organisations and WTO’s member states.

The Egyptian diplomat affirmed the importance of setting up regulations to ensure high-quality and safe use of those manufacturing capabilities, while preserving intellectual property rights as the main catalyst for encouraging research and development in various fields.

But those rights should not become an obstacle to the countries' access to vaccines and medicine that are needed to contain, treat and prevent the spread of coronavirus, he added.