Govt launches IIT Delhi’s covid-19 test kit for commercial use at ₹399

New Delhi: The Union government Wednesday announced the commercial launch of a covid-19 test kit developed by the IIT Delhi at a base price of ₹399, the cheapest in the market, and which may help ramp up coronavirus testing in the country.

Approved by the Indian Medical Council of India and Drug Control General of India, the commercial product named ‘Corosure’ was commercially developed by a company named NewTech Medical Devises after obtaining license from the IIT. Two million testing kits will be manufactured by next month, Newtech Medical Devises said.

“The base price of the RT-PCR assay is ₹399,” IIT Delhi said adding that “even after adding the RNA isolation and laboratory charges, the cost per test will be considerably cheaper compared to currently available kits in the market”.

Jatin Goyal, founder of Newtech Medical Devices said using the “unique technology developed by IIT Delhi and our expertise in reagent and kit-making, we have ensured an accurate, affordable, Make-in-India kit for the diagnosis of Sars-CoV2, which is a ‘probe-free’ method, and reduces the testing cost without compromising on accuracy. We are anticipating two million kits by next month.”

Human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, who e-launched the affordable RT-PCR based covid-19 diagnostic kit, said “the country requires affordable and reliable testing for the country which can help to control the pandemic. The Corosure has been developed indigenously and is much cheaper than other kits… The kit has received ICMR approval with the highest score and DCGI approval with a very high sensitivity and specificity”.

The minister said the diagnostic kit will now be available for use by the authorised testing labs. IIT Delhi has given licence to 10 companies to manufacture covid-19 diagnostic kit using the technology developed by its researchers, he added.

IIT Delhi director V. Ramgopal Rao said his researchers will continue to focus on covid-19 related innovations and development, to help the country in the fight against coronavirus. IIT Delhi has been working on a number of covid-19 research. Other than Corosure, it is working on another testing kit in collaboration with the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) Pune for easy use by individuals at home for quick results.

India is the third most infected country in the world in terms of total positive cases. As of 15 July, more than 930,000 positive cases have been reported in the country, of which more than 24,300 have died.