In the wake of possible third wave of Coronavirus which experts believe will reach its peack sometime in October this year, the central and state governments have ramped up Covid vaccine development and manufacturing ecosystem in the country.
The Ministry of Science & Technology on Sunday informed that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and considering the enhanced production of COVID Vaccines, the Government proactively took the decision of setting up additional laboratories,to facilitate expedited testing / pre-release certification of the vaccines.
In an official release issued today, the ministry said that Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology ,Government of India 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.
The statement said that the two new vaccine testing facilitiesset up as Central Drug laboratories at DBT- NCCS, and DBT-NIAB received funding support by the PM-CARES Funds trust.
The facilities are expected to test approx 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," the statement read.
Currently, the nation has a Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) at Kasauli, which is the National Control Laboratory for testing and pre-release certification of Immunobiologicals (vaccines and antisera) meant for human use in India.