MISSION COVID SURAKSHA

MISSION COVID SURAKSHA

Subject : Governance

Context : Under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission COVID Suraksha was announced by the Government of India, to accelerate the development and production of Indigenous COVID Vaccines.

Concept :

• Mission COVID Suraksha is India’s targeted effort to enable the development of indigenous, affordable and accessible vaccines for the country and will complement the ongoing mission of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• The Centre had announced this package during the third economic stimulus.
• The Mission with its end-to-end focus from preclinical development through clinical development and manufacturing and regulatory facilitation for deployment, would consolidate all available and funded resources towards accelerated product development.
• Phase-I of the Mission has been allotted Rs. 900 Crore for a period of 12 months.
• The grant will be provided to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for Research and Development (R&D) of Indian Covid-19 vaccines.
• It will be led by DBT and implemented by a dedicated Mission Implementation Unit at the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC is a Public Sector Enterprise, set up by the Department of Biotechnology).
• The existing activities under National Bio Pharma Mission (NBM) and Ind-CEPI Mission will provide complementary strengths to this Mission.
• The DBT is supporting the implementation of the Ind-CEPI Mission, “Epidemic preparedness through rapid vaccine development: Support of Indian vaccine development aligned with the global initiative of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)”.