Translational Health Science And Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, has now been recognized by CEPI as one of the Global network of Laboratories for centralized assessment of COVID 19 Vaccines. The CEPI network will initially involve six labs, one each in Canada, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and India. Under the CEPI Global network the Laboratory will use the same reagents and follow a common set of protocols to measure the immune response of multiple vaccine candidates under development and trial This will greatly harmonize the Vaccine trial process and allow different vaccine candidates to be compared and speed up the selection of the most effective candidate. The Ind-CEPI mission for establishment of BSL-3 facility, is a translational laboratory for platform technologies and a Bioassay laboratory for development of assays to measure clinical immunogenicity. The mandate of the bioassay laboratory at THSTI is to provide validated assays for vaccine development on par with global standards.

The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, and Government of India has been implementing the IndCEPI mission ‘India Centric Epidemic Preparedness through Rapid Vaccine Development: Supporting Indian Vaccine Development’. The objectives of this mission are aligned with the Global Initiative of Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness for Innovation (CEPI ) and aims to strengthen the development of vaccines and associated competencies/technologies for the diseases of epidemic potential in India.

Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary of The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India said: “.The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India is supporting efforts for COVID 19 vaccine development and testing. More than 30 Vaccines are at different stages of development with 3 in Human trials and nearly 4 in advanced stages of Preclinical .We are very pleased that the bioassay laboratory at Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, an autonomous institute of Department of Biotechnology, has been identified by CEPI for centralised immunoassay analysis for COVID 19 vaccines under development globally. It is well-positioned to run comparability studies with other laboratories internationally and will form an important part of the global network .This is another excellent example of Ind CEPI and CEPI Partnership.

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NB/KGS (DBT release)