Telangana’s Industry Minister K.T. Rama Rao has urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to establish a vaccine testing and certification laboratory and government medical store depot in Hyderabad.
In a letter to the Union minister, Rama Rao demanded the establishment of a vaccine testing and certification laboratory on the lines of Central Drug Laboratory in Kasauli.
He stated that Hyderabad is known as the ‘vaccine capital of the world’, manufacturing more than 6 billion doses each year contributing one-third of the global vaccine output. He wrote that the vaccines manufactured in Hyderabad are being sent to Central Drug Laboratory in Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh for testing and certification.
The logistics and the time involved were constraining the industry in being a more effective and competitive destination, the state minister said.
Rao also mentioned that Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) is establishing the country’s largest national animal resource facility for biomedical research in Genome Valley, Hyderabad. “The state government has provided the required land for the project free of cost to ICMR to facilitate the establishment of this facility,” he added.
“I am happy to note that this facility already has a mandate of testing and certifying drugs including vaccines, medical devices and to certify them on behalf of the Government of India. 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,” read the letter.
Rao also stated that establishing a Government Medical Store Depot (GMSD) facility of the Government of India 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.
