Government Sets Up Two Covid Vaccine Testing Labs At Pune And Hyderabad

As per the ministry, with generous support from PM CARES Fund trust in a very short span of time, both the institutions through relentless efforts have set up state-of-the-art modern facilities for this purpose.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and considering the enhanced production of COVID vaccines, the government has set up two laboratories to facilitate expedited testing/pre-release certification of the vaccines, informed the Union Ministry of Science and Technology on Sunday. According to the ministry, the Government of India has set up two vaccine testing facilities including one at Autonomous Research Institutes National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, and another at National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) Hyderabad as Central Drug Laboratory (CDL), for batch testing and quality control of vaccines. 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, it said. 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, said the ministry.