Centre positive to vaccine testing lab in Genome

Hyderabad: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday promised to examine setting up of a vaccine testing and certification laboratory in Hyderabad.

Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday spoke to Harsh Vardhan and urged the Centre to consider the request of the Telangana government to set up a vaccine testing and certification the laboratory at the Genome Valley in Hyderabad. Harsh Vardhan said that he would examine the request from all angles.

He also informed the Vice-President that there were seven vaccine testing and certification laboratories in the world, including the one at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, and that accreditation would be required from an international body for such a facility. It may be mentioned here that on Wednesday, Telangana Municipal Administration and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao wrote a letter to the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to set up a vaccine testing and certification laboratory at Hyderabad on the lines of Central Drug Laboratory in Kasauli.

In the letter to the Union Health Minister, KTR pointed out that Hyderabad was known as the 'Vaccine Capital of the World' and was manufacturing over six billion doses annually and contributing one-third of global vaccine production. The logistics and the time involved were constraining the industry in being a more effective and competitive destination, Minister averred.