Access to Medical Oxygen roundtable series

Third roundtable

The 3rd roundtable took place on 9 June 2021. The session, co-hosted by the Every Breath Counts Coalition and the Access to Medicine Foundation, brought the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) Oxygen Emergency Taskforce together with industry, investors and other global health stakeholders to engage the oxygen industry in the vital work of the Taskforce, which was established in February 2021 to help LMICs respond to the rapidly rising need for oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients. 

The objective of the third roundtable was to engage the oxygen industry more directly in the work of the Taskforce to prevent a repeat of the oxygen crises that have occurred in many LMICs, most recently in India and Nepal. Since the second dialogue on 9 December 2020, the pandemic has continued to cause oxygen shortages. Despite the
outpouring of international support, many countries are still reporting deaths from lack of access to oxygen.

The goals of the third invitation-only roundtable were to:

• Update attendees on ACT-A Emergency Oxygen Taskforce activities;

• Learn from industry on experience to date responding to the surge in LMIC demand for oxygen and highlight some of the bilateral oxygen support partnerships between industry and donor governments; and

• Advance specific options for moving forward together to more effectively respond to the next wave of oxygen shortages to prevent a repeat of the crisis in India.

The full report for the third roundtable can be downloaded here. 

Click to see a full list of participants.