Hyderabad, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad was Monday identified by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to be one of the five validation centres for COVID-19 testing in India.

CSIR-CCMB is the only non-ICMR lab to be a part of these Centres of Excellence that will validate the non-US FDA and non-EUA/CE-IVD approved kits for COVID-19 testing.

This comes as a welcome step as the number of COVID-19 testing in India needs to be ramped up hugely. Lack of kits developed and imported from other countries necessitates India to develop its own testing kits, said an official release.

While multiple start-ups and life science companies across the country have been already identified for their ability to develop such kits, they would need to be quickly validated. These Centres of Excellence will be crucial in their validation, and approval for use for the testing centres in the country.

"Since March 31, 2020 CCMB itself has been a testing centre for COVID-19, and has been working with hospitals across 33 districts of Telangana. It has also trained medical doctors and staff from government hospitals in the state. This new responsibility of kit validation will now enable us to support the healthcare and life science industry sector to bring all stakeholders together in this fight against COVID-19," said Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB.