The current COVID- 19 outbreak has proven that India has the potential to manifest itself as the global hub for the production of testing kits, said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, executive chairperson, Biocon.
She made the aforesaid statement in a webinar on “Combating COVID-19: Biotech to the Rescue” conducted by the Department of Biotechnology, School of Engineering and Applied Science at the Bennett University.
Shaw emphasized the abilities and resolutions made by the pharma and biotech professionals from all across the globe. She further said after the US was flooded with coronavirus cases and there was the need to escalate testing there, India by that time became fully alert of the forthcoming situation. Even the test manufacturers were looking forward to the US.
Shortly, India discerned that they have few companies who have the capacity to come up with kits. This involves the knowledge of “the primers, the probes and the viral collection” and the way to construe them.
MyLab headed first for making kits and was later joined by many other companies. Currently, they are toiling to produce every constituent of a kit.
Shaw affirmed that India will soon be globally called the “manufacturing hub” of testing kits. She has described the present scenario as an “exciting time” for India which has brought people from all walks of life together like academia, industry, science, engineers and medical practitioners.
Another member of the session included Shahid Jameel, CEO, Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliances. He stated that coronavirus cases are still surging in India and the curve has still not become flat. Jameel highlighted the progress of vaccines and medicines being used to fight against this horrific COVID-19 pandemic.
