new delhi in the wake of the covid19 pandemic and considering the enhanced production of covid vaccines thegovernment of india has set up two laboratories to facilitate expedited testingprerelease certification of the vaccines informed the union ministry of science and technology on sunday according to the ministry the government of india has set up two vaccine testing facilities including one at autonomous researchinstitutes national centre for cell science nccs pune and another at national institute of animal biotechnology niab hyderabad as central drug laboratory cdl for batch testing and quality control of vaccines currently the nation has a central drugs laboratory cdl at kasauli which is the national control laboratory for testing and prerelease certification of immunobiologicals vaccines and antisera meant for human use in india it said accordingly with funding support provided by the pmcares funds trust two new vaccine testing facilities have been set up as central drug laboratories at dbt nccs and dbtniab said the ministry it stated that since the covid19 pandemic the department of biotechnology has been at the forefront contributing to various covid19 related activities including vaccine development diagnostics and testing biobanking and genomic surveillance in addition to fundamental research and also building a strong ecosystem for translational research dbtnccs and dbtniab have been the pillars for many aspects of infectious diseaserelated work in india and have contributed to the advancement of cuttingedge research output in frontier areas of biotechnology relevant to human health and disease the ministry stated that the facility at nccs pune has now been notified as central drugs laboratory for testing and lot release ofcovid19 vaccines vide gazette notification issued by the ministry of health and family welfare on june 28 2021 it said the facility at niab hyderabad is likely to receive necessary notification shortly it added as per the ministry with generous support from pm cares fund trust in a very short span of time both the institutions through relentless efforts have set up stateoftheart modern facilities for this purpose it stated that the facilities are expected to test approx 60 batches of vaccines per month the facilities are geared up to test existingcovid19 vaccines and other newer covid19 vaccines as per the demand of the nation it said this will not only expedite the vaccine manufacture and supply but also be logistically convenient considering that both pune and hyderabad are the two vaccine manufacturing hubs stated the ministry