The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has launched the National Diagnostics Catapult (C-CAMP InDx 2.0)  in New Delhi on February 2nd, 2023 in presence of Dr Parvinder Maini, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India (GoI). The program is anchored by C-CAMP with support from the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSc) and funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and FIND, a global alliance for diagnostics.

The Catapult, C-CAMP InDx 2.0 aims to boost India’s preparedness for current and future pandemics and scale up India’s diagnostics space for infectious diseases including but not limited to COVID-19. Further, the Catapult is envisioned to set a global model for capacity building in the diagnostics domain in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to meet the twin goals of affordability and accessibility in the United Nations vision for Universal Health Coverage.

Diagnostics play a key role in infectious disease management both at individual and community level. C-CAMP InDx 2.0 looks to address this dual need by enabling access through innovation, development & commercialization of high-quality, affordable diagnostics and building a robust surveillance platform for rapid response by the public health system to disease outbreaks.

 C-CAMP InDx 2.0, builds on the hugely successful, India-wide COVID-19 diagnostics platform, Indigenization of Diagnostics (CCAMP-InDx) initiative launched in July 2020. In one year since its launch the program had achieved its target of 1 million indigenous RT-PCR test kits for SARS-CoV-2 per day, building capacity of more than 200 indigenous MSMEs and academic labs in the diagnostics ecosystem, the largest such cohort in the country. CCAMP-InDx has enabled development of 40+ regulatory approved RT PCR Kits and 12 RAPID tests, all in the market currently. 

The CCAMP-InDx program through it’s already established and future Centres of Excellence (CoEs) across India's leading academic institutes, hospitals/medical research centres  and industry  partners will play a significant role in supporting exploratory research, development, analytical/clinical validations, and commercialization pathways. The focus of the CoEs in CCAMP InDx 2.0 will be on enabling development of high-quality, affordable testing tools for human disease diagnostics as well as human and environmental surveillance.

Reference: https://www.ccamp.res.in/national-diagnostics-catapult-c-camp-indx-20-launched