In order to ease pressure on the Kasauli-based Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), the Narendra Modi government has started the process of developing two new testing laboratories for vaccines - at the National Centre for Cell Sciences (NCCS) in Pune and the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) in Hyderabad, Trend reports.
Currently, CDL is the only such laboratory in the country. With a slew of new vaccines against Covid-19 expected to become due for clearance in the coming months, pressure on the Himachal Pradesh facility will only go up. This is why the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which comes under the science and technology ministry, has zeroed in on two other locations to build vaccine testing facilities.
"The two sites have been carefully chosen. Hyderabad and Pune are the two vaccine hubs of the country, that is why we will have two new labs at these two locations," a senior government official told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. Currently, the two vaccines in the national programme, Covishield and Covaxin, are being manufactured in Pune and Hyderabad respectively.
ThePrint had last week reported that NCCS was undergoing inspections - by the state drug controller’s office, the apex drug regulatory authority the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, and the CDL - as part of the government’s plan to authorise it for testing Covid-19 vaccines.