THSTI: Part of Vaccine Assessment Project | 06 Oct 2020

Why in News

The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness for Innovation (CEPI), a global initiative, has named Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad as one of the six laboratories for assessing Covid-19 vaccine candidates that are under development.

Key Points

  • Six Laboratories:
    • The CEPI network will initially involve six labs, one each in Canada, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and India.
    • All the labs would use the same reagents (cause a chemical reaction) 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 mandate of the THSTI is to provide validated assays (analysis) for vaccine development on a par with global standards.
      • Bioassay is the determination of the relative strength of a substance (drug) by comparing its effect on a test organism with that of a standard preparation.
  • Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness for Innovation (CEPI):
    • CEPI is a global partnership launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.
    • CEPI was founded in Davos (Switzerland) by the governments of Norway and India, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Economic Forum.
    • The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, and Government of India has been implementing the IndCEPI mission ‘India Centric Epidemic Preparedness through Rapid Vaccine Development: Supporting Indian Vaccine Development’.
      • The objectives of this mission are aligned with that of CEPI and aims to strengthen the development of vaccines and associated competencies/technologies for the diseases of epidemic potential in India.
  • Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI):
    • It is an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
    • It is located in Faridabad (Haryana).

Source: PIB