CDL Kasauli releases almost 1512 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in less than a year

The Central Drugs Laboratory which is set in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh in Kasauli has been at the centre of India's Covid vaccination campaign since its launch early this year. It has cleared almost 1512 million vaccine doses till November 2021.

"Central Drugs laboratory CDL Kasauli has received 1,049 batches of all the indigenous manufacturers as well as from the imported vaccines that is equal into almost 150 crore doses have already been released by the CDL Kasauli," said Dr Eswara Reddy, Joint Drugs Controller General of India

While interacting during the workshop organised by the Union Health Ministry at CDL Kasauli for Health Journalists Dr Reddy explained the role of CDL Kasauli during the COVID-19 pandemic before its vaccine is released into the market.

"As you know, it is the government's responsibility to ensure safety, quality and the efficacy of the vaccines before released into the market. The safety and efficacy are assured through clinical trials. However, the quality component is assured by testing each and every lot of vaccines before being released into the market by the government lab. So before releasing any vaccine into the market, this vaccine has to be tested. Thereby we will assure the quality of the product," he said.

"In fact, it is the vision of the government of India especially Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya," he added.

He also said that the purpose of organizing the workshop is to inform people about the different parameters followed before vaccines are released into the market.

"You can see what instrument we are using for the testing, what are the different parameters on which we are testing, so, there will be a building of trust and confidence on the quality of the product. Thereby you can also further convey this message to the public how the government is serious in ensuring the quality of the vaccines, especially to avoid the vaccine hesitancy that is present in the mind of the public with respect to the quality or other issues," he added.

There are three major COVID-19 indigenous vaccine manufacturers at present in India.

"Mainly we have three major indigenous manufacturers Bharat Biotech producing Covaxin, Serum Institute of India producing Covishield and the Zydus Cadila's DNA vaccine. So these are the three majors in addition to this, we also have the Hetero pharmaceutical laboratories they are also manufacturing the SputnikV," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )