Department of Biotechnology lab to be part of global Covid-19 vaccine assessment project

The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness for Innovation (CEPI), a global initiative to develop vaccines against emerging epidemics, has named Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), as part of the Global Network of Laboratories for centralized assessment of Covid-19 vaccine candidates that are under development.

The Faridabad-based laboratory, under DBT, is one of the six laboratories that have been recognised by the CEPI. The CEPI network will initially involve six labs - one each in Canada, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and India, for the assessment of Covid-19 vaccine development.

Under the CEPI Global network, all the laboratories 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 harmonise 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,” read a statement released by DBT.

“The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, is supporting efforts for Covid-19 vaccine development and testing. THSTI runs comparability studies with other laboratories internationally and will form an important part of the global network,” said DBT Secretary Renu Swarup.

“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,” Swarup added.

More than 30 Vaccines are at different stages of development with 3 in human trials and nearly 4 in advanced stages of preclinical, Swarup informed.