WHO has asked India to up the number of COVID-19 testing kits as we have limited number of tests available which are not enough for the large population of our country.?
Now, reportedly, an Ahmedabad-based company has become the first in India to receive a licence to manufacture coronavirus test kits from the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO). This will make the company the only one in India so far that will be able to manufacture reagent kits used in the rRT-PCR machines to test for coronavirus.
CoSara Diagnostics Pvt Ltd is registered in Ahmedabad and has its manufacturing plant in Ranoli, Vadodara. The company received its licence on Tuesday. This is almost a month after its application was sent to the CDSCO for approval.?
It is a joint venture between Co-Diagnostics Inc of Utah, USA, and Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises of India. Co-Diagnostics had developed the test kit in the US and the company was trying to start manufacturing in India. The country has been importing the reagent test kits from other countries so far.
¡°We have received the licence from the CDSCO and will begin manufacturing shortly. We have ordered raw materials from our partner in the US and they will be arriving soon,¡± Ahmedabad Mirror quoted Mohal Kartikeya Sarabhai, the CEO of CoSara Diagnostics as saying.?
The company claims that the reagent kits manufactured by it can give test results in two to two-and-a-half hours in comparison to five hours taken by the kits being used by ICMR and its labs.
So, how do the test kits give faster results? Apparently the company has ¡®patented software to be used in the PCR machines that has a faster diagnostic time frame than the ones currently being used¡¯.?
¡°With no known treatment or approved vaccine for the highly infectious Covid-19, the need for accurate and rapid diagnoses has never been greater. Our cost-effective Covid-19 test has been designed to run on a variety of commercially available platforms. We are confident in our ability to meet the growing demand for this diagnostic kit,¡± Dwight Egan, CEO of Co-Diagnostics Inc, said in a press statement.
The price of the tests
It is not known yet at what price the test kits will be sold to the government at. However, Sarabhai reportedly said that it will be cheaper than the cost at which the government is procuring the test kit from other countries at the moment.