CEPI to include India’s THSTI among 6 other labs for Covid vaccine testing
3 min read 05 Oct 2020, 09:43 PM ISTThe CEPI network will initially involve six labs, one each in Canada, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and India
PremiumThe global Initiative of Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness for Innovation (CEPI) has identified an Indian laboratory for centralised assessment of Covid-19 vaccines.
Translational Health Science And Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, has been recognised by CEPI as one of the global network of laboratories for the assessment.
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.
The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology has been implementing the IndCEPI mission ‘India Centric Epidemic Preparedness through Rapid Vaccine Development: Supporting Indian Vaccine Development’.
“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," said the government in a statement.
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 government said.
“More than 30 covid-19 Vaccines are at different stages of development with three in Human trials and nearly four in advanced stages of Preclinical trials," said Renu Swarup, Secretary of The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology.
“The THSTI run comparability studies with other laboratories internationally and will form an important part of the global network," she said.
India’s Covid-19 wrap
The total tally of the Covid-19 cases touched 67 lakh on Monday with the toll reaching 1,03,173.
A total of 74,442 new confirmed cases have been reported in the last 24 hours in the country. About 78% of the new cases are concentrated in 10 States/UT. Maharashtra has reported more than 12,000 of the new cases. Karnataka contributed more than 10,000, the government said.
The active cases in India are 9,34,427. As on date, the active cases contribute only 14.11% to the positive caseload of the country. This is following a progressively downward trend. Only 10 States/UTs account for 77% of the active cases.
The union health ministry said that 903 deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours. 82% of new fatalities are reported from 10 States and UTs. Over 36% of deaths reported yesterday are from Maharashtra with 326 deaths followed by Karnataka with 67 deaths, the ministry said in a statement.
The positive aspect of the pandemic in India is the higher recovery rate. 76,737 recoveries have been registered in the last 24 hours in the country whereas the new confirmed cases stand at 74,442. The new recoveries have exceeded the new cases in the recent days.
India’s total recoveries stands at 55,86,703 today with national recovery rate at 84.34%, the government said.
Around 75% of new recovered cases are recorded in 10 States and UTs. Maharashtra alone has contributed to over 15,000 to the new recovered cases followed by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with more than 7,000 cases each.
Meanwhile, Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare along with Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh digitally inaugurated the Super Speciality Block (SSB) at Motilal Nehru Medical College, Prayagraj. The 220-bedded facility has been dedicated as a COVID Hospital (DCH) to the nation. The Union Health Minister also digitally inaugurated first high throughput COBAS 6800 machine in Uttar Pradesh, installed by ICMR to pursue its regionally balanced COVID Testing strategy. The Super Speciality Block is built with an investment of ₹150 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
