A vaccine production unit and a testing laboratory meeting high international standards will be set up in Uzbekistan. This is provided for by the president’s Comprehensive Measures to Develop Biotechnology and Improve the System for Ensuring the Uzbekistan’s Biological Security Decree, the Uzbekistan 24 reported.
The Decree approved the corresponding program for 2020-2024, as well as a program for the implementation of priority research projects in the biotechnology.
“We have a good scientific and technical potential in this area, there are institutes, universities that are engaged in scientific research in the field of biotechnology. But, unfortunately, the commercialization of these studies is practically impossible due to the fact that we do not have industrial enterprises in this area,” said the First Deputy Minister of Innovation Shahlo Turdiqulova.
The Decree paves way for setting up of a Council on Biological Safety under the Cabinet of Ministers, which will conduct national policies in this area, give recommendations and proposals, and also ensure the interaction of all departmental structures in the field of biotechnology.
"The President gave instructions to set up a modern laboratory of the third level of security, where scientists can develop new types of vaccines, work on new strains of viruses," said Sardor Kariev, the director of the Pharmaceutical Industry Development Agency.
The creation of a vaccine production site could cost approximately US$ 53 million, and a laboratory - US$ 8 million, the statement says. It is expected that the implementation of the production site project will soon launch. A testing laboratory corresponding to the BCL 3 safety level will be created at the Tashkent Pharma Park pharmaceutical cluster.
“After completion of this project, we will be able to produce the necessary vaccines, even, one might say, vaccines to fight the coronavirus,” the head of the agency explained.
It also follows from the Decree that a food mix laboratory (jointly with the University of Copenhagen), a scientific laboratory for "cell technologies", as well as a national Big Data laboratory for analyzing big data generated in the fields of biotechnology, biology, biomedicine will be created at the center of advanced technologies and chemistry.
As part of Uzbekistan's accession to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on Biological Diversity, a mechanism will be developed for the phased introduction of labeling of agricultural and food products, which includes GMOs, pesticides, food additives and dyes, the TV channel concluded.
