Bhubaneswar: Soon made in Odisha rapid antigen testing kits will hit the market for testing of SARS-CoV-2 infection in people.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has validated the first made in Odisha Covid-19 rapid antigen test kit, ImCOV-Ag.
The kit has been developed by Bhubaneswar-based IMGENEX India Pvt. Ltd, with intellectual input from Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC). The kit can detect various variants of Covid-19 by using nasopharyngeal swab samples, said CEO of IMGENEX, Sujay Singh.
Singh said his firm has started working on this project since June 2020 and the state government’s department of biotechnology has sanctioned a grant for this.
“By utilising the fund, we have developed antigen and antibody, which is required to develop the kit. The kit was developed at a cost of Rs 1 crore. We are constructing a building where we will manufacture about 20 lakh kits per month. This facility is likely to start operation by April,” he said. However, it is only for laboratory use, not for home tests, Singh said, adding, “Our next step will be to develop a self-test kit so that one can undergo Covid test by sitting at home.”
“The IMGENEX India Pvt. Ltd, Bhubaneswar first started developing the kit and RMRC Bhubaneswar provided intellectual support for in-house testing and validation. Subsequently, we submitted the proposal for approval,” said Sanghamitra Pati, director of RMRC, Bhubaneswar. She said the ICMR follows the criteria of sensitivity and specificity while approving any Covid test kit and this Odisha made kit has passed on all parameters.
As per the ICMR, till date, as many as 150 rapid antigen test kits have been validated (including 31 revalidations), and have been found to be satisfactory.