Pune based Mylab develops kit to test Coronavirus in 2.5 hours, less than half of current 7 hours’ time
Pune based Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd has become the first Indian company to get commercial approval to make Coronavirus testing kits.
Sumit Singh
Pune, March 24, 2020: A molecular diagnostics company Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd located in Pune has become the first Indian company to get commercial approval from both Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), to make Coronavirus testing kits.
At present the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has 100,000 test kits and it has further ordered two lakhs test kits from Germany. However, Mylabs says that it can make one lakhs kits in just a week.
The government’s Make in India initiative helped the company develop Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit in six weeks. This indigenous kit screens and detects infection within 2.5 hours as compared with over 7 hours taken by the current protocol.
Mylab Discovery Solutions MD Hasmukh Rawal said that the COVID-19 kit has been made as per WHO/CDC guidelines.
The lab is expected to charge Rs 1200 per kit which is one-fourth of the current procurement cost. However, an automated PCR test kit can study more than 1,000 patients a day, while Mylab’s kit can study only 100 patients.
India has faced a lot of backlash for testing fewer people for the Coronavirus. By testing 15 people per million, it is testing the lowest number of people in the world.
The number of Coronavirus positive patients has increased to 495 in the country including 10 deaths.
Initially ICMR tested only those people who had travel history and showed symptoms. Later, to expand testing, 12 more private labs were roped in to increase testing. However, these private labs lack approved testing kits that are necessary.
