HYDERABAD: Telangana Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Wednesday reiterated his request to the central government for the establishment of a Vaccine Testing and Certification Laboratory in Hyderabad on the lines of the Central Drug Laboratory in Kasauli. He said this in a letter to the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan.
The letter comes in the backdrop of India's first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19, Covaxin, having been developed in Hyderabad by Bharat Biotech.
In his letter, Rama Rao pointed out that Hyderabad is known as the ‘Vaccine Capital of the World' as more than 6 billion doses of vaccines are manufactured here every year, contributing to one-third of the global output.
However, the vaccine manufacturers are forced to send the vaccines to the Central Drug Laboratory in Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh for testing and certification. Rao said that due to these logistical reasons and the time involved for it, the vaccine industry in Hyderabad is constrained from being more effective and competitive.
Rama Rao also mentioned in his letter that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) is establishing the country’s largest National Animal Resource facility for Biomedical Research at the Genome Valley in Hyderabad. He added, “The state government has provided the required land for the project free of cost to ICMR to facilitate the establishment of this facility."
Rama Rao further said, “I am happy to note that this facility already has a mandate of testing and certifying the drug including vaccines, medical devices and to certify them on behalf of the Indian government. I would like to request that the establishment of this facility be expedited, and this institution is strengthened further to conduct testing and pre-release certification of immuno biologicals meant for human use in India."
The Telangana minister also stated that establishing a Government Medical Store Depot (GMSD) facility of the Indian government in Hyderabad with state-of-the-art data monitoring and tracking system would go a long way in supporting the vaccine manufacturing efforts in the country. Currently, such facilities are only available in Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.