Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurates CEPI Centralized network lab at DBT-THSTI Faridabad
The CEPI centralised laboratory at DBT-THSTI Faridabad is first of its kind in India and one of the seven in the world
The Minister for Science & Technology, Health & Family Welfare and Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated one of the seven labs of the world called as the centralised network lab of Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) established at Translational Health Science & Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, through the virtual platform in New Delhi. THSTI is an institute of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT). The one of its kind laboratory in India is accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) (ISO 17025:2017).
Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT; JS, DBT and MD BIBCOL, Chandra Prakash Goyal; Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser, Vishvajit Sahay; Adviser, DBT; Dr Alka Sharma; Executive Director (Officer in Charge), THSTI, Director, NIAB, Dr Subeer S Majumdar; Managing Director, Andhra Med Tech Zone (AMTZ), Vishakhapatnam, Dr Jitendra Sharma; Scientist ‘E’, DBT, Dr Jyoti M Logani were present. Several scientists and officials of DBT and THSTI joined the function online.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Vardhan lauded DBT and BIRAC for “working relentlessly over the past ten months to develop effective interventions for combating the COVID pandemic.”
He said, “The CEPI laboratory will be a great addition to the ability of THSTI to enhance quality of services towards the making the vaccine and its acceptability at the global level.”
CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India is implementing the Ind-CEPI mission titled ‘India Centric Epidemic Preparedness through Rapid Vaccine Development: Supporting Indian Vaccine Development Aligned with the Global Initiative of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)’. Ind-CEPI Mission aims to strengthen the development of vaccines for the diseases of epidemic potential in India as well as build coordinated preparedness in the Indian public health system and vaccine industry to address existing and emergent infectious threats in India. The major focus at present is to help to evaluate new COVID-19 vaccines, using standard analysis and same reagents in all labs so that vaccine produced has global acceptance and repeatability of the results, for global use.
The clinical sample testing laboratories selected for this collaborative vaccine network are Nexelis (Canada) and Public Health England (PHE; UK), VisMederiSrl (Italy), Viroclinics Biosciences BV (The Netherlands), Q2 Solutions (USA), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh (ICDDR-B, Bangladesh), National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, UK), and Translational Health Sciences and Technological Institute (THSTI, India). CEPI has approved costs of up to $16million for this network. All COVID-19 vaccine developers can use this network for free to assess the immunogenicity of their vaccine candidate against a common protocol, using clinical samples from preclinical, Phase I through Phase III trials.
Dr Vardhan also released the e-Book on S & T solutions for COVID -19 that showcases the initiatives undertaken by the Department of Biotechnology for the mitigation of this Pandemic. From the development of indigenous vaccines, novel point-of-care diagnostics and therapeutic formulations based on traditional knowledge, to establishment of research resources and offering services, the Department is focussed on creating an ecosystem to foster Atmanirbharta for innovative product development, with societal relevance. The e-Book showcases the indigenous COVID-19 interventions developed by DBT supported initiatives.
