2 new COVID-19 labs set up by govt in Pune and Hyderabad to ramp up testing in country

To gear up the vaccination drive in India, the government has decided to set up two additional COVID-19 vaccine testing labs in Hyderabad and Pune. As the country aims to vaccinate all its population by December, the two labs are funded by the PM Cares fund to facilitate expedited testing and the pre-release certification of vaccines.

Speaking on this announcement, the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had said, "A big boost to the largest vaccine drive 2 as the Central Drug Labs set up at Pune & Hyderabad for testing COVID-19 vaccines will pace up vaccine supply in India. Grateful for the support provided to the Department of Biotechnology through PM CARES Fund to expedite the establishment of the labs".

COVID vaccine testing labs in India

At present, the country 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. 

Two Coronavirus vaccine testing facilities are set up by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India in its Autonomous Research Institutes National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, and for batch testing and quality control of vaccines, National Institute of Animal Biotechnology,(NIAB) Hyderabad as Central Drug Laboratory (CDL).

And now, the two new vaccine testing facilities have been set up as Central Drug laboratories at DBT- NCCS, and DBT-NIAB, with the funding support sanctioned by the PM-CARES Funds. 

Laboratory updates

The National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune was notified as the Central Drugs Laboratory by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on Une 28, 2021, for testing and lot release of COVID-19 vaccines vide. Gazette notification issued. While, the facility at NIAB, Hyderabad is yet to receive the notification soon. 

Both the institutions have set up state-of-the-art modern facilities with the support from PM CARES Fund trust as they are expected to test approx 60  batches of vaccines per month. As per the requirement of the country, the facilities are fueled up to test existing COVID-19 vaccines and other new Coronavirus vaccines.

The additional laboratories will not only accelerate vaccine manufacture and supply but is logistically convenient considering as both Pune and Hyderabad are the two vaccine manufacturing hubs. 

Department of Biotechnology to the COVID-19 rescue

Department of Biotechnology has played a major role in battling the deadly Coronavirus infections and has contributed to COVID-19 related activities such as the development of COVID vaccines, diagnostics and testing of Coronavirus infections, bio-banking and genomic surveillance, fundamental and translational research. 

The two pillars, DBT-NCCS and DBT-NIAB, have always worked concerning the contagious disease-related research in India and have immensely contributed in line with Biotechnology research output related to human health and disease. 

(Image credit: AP)