Govt readies two more central drug labs for Covid-19 vaccine testing

New Delhi: Considering the enhanced production of COVID-19 Vaccines, union government is now setting up additional laboratories to facilitate expedited testing and pre-release certification of the  vaccines.

In a latest move, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology has set up two Vaccine testing facilities in its Autonomous Research Institutes  National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, and National Institute of Animal Biotechnology,(NIAB) Hyderabad as Central Drug Laboratory (CDL), for batch testing and quality control of vaccines. Accordingly with funding support provided by the PM-CARES Funds trust, two new vaccine testing facilities have been set up as Central Drug laboratories at DBT- NCCS, and DBT-NIAB .

Currently, the nation has a Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) at Kasauli, which is the National Control Laboratory for testing and pre-release certification of Immuno-biologicals (vaccines and antisera) meant for human use in India.

DBT has been in the forefront contributing to various COVID-19 related activities including Vaccine Development, Diagnostics  and testing, bio-banking and genomic surveillance, in addition to fundamental research and also building a strong ecosystem for translational research

DBT-NCCS and DBT-NIAB  have been the pillars for  many aspects of infectious disease related work in India and have  contributed to  advancement of  cutting-edge research output  in frontier areas of Biotechnology relevant to human health and disease.

The facility at NCCS, Pune, has now been notified as Central Drugs Laboratory for testing and lot release of COVID-19 vaccines vide. Gazette notification issued by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on 28th June 2021.The facility at NIAB ,Hyderabad is likely to receive necessary notification shortly.

With generous support from PM CARES Fund trust in a very short span of time, both the institutions  through  relentless efforts have  set up the state-of-the-art modern facilities  for this purpose. The facilities are  expected to test approximately 60  batches of vaccines per month. The facilities  are  geared up to test existing COVID-19 vaccines and other newer COVID-19 vaccines as per demand of the Nation. This will not only expedite the Vaccine manufacture and supply but also be logistically convenient considering that both Pune and Hyderabad are the two Vaccine manufacturing hubs.