DRDO's Indigenous COVID-19 Antibody Detection Kit to Hit the Markets Soon

New Delhi: Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), a laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has developed DIPCOVAN kit, an indigenous COVID-19 antibody detection-based kit, to be sold across India from June first week.

It is expected to be available at about Rs 75 per test. The kit will be very useful for understanding COVID‐19 epidemiology and assessing an individual's previous SARS‐CoV‐2 exposure.

Reports said that it can detect both spike and nucleocapsid (S&N) proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus with a high sensitivity of 97 per cent and specificity of 99 per cent.

DIPCOVAN kit has been developed in association with Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, a development and manufacturing diagnostics company based at New Delhi. It was developed indigenously by the scientists, followed by extensive validation on more than 1,000 patient samples at various COVID designated hospitals in Delhi, according to the reports.

The three batches of the product were validated during last one year. The kit is approved by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in April 2021.

It is to be mentioned that the product received the regulatory approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to manufacture for sale and distribution. It is intended for the qualitative detection of IgG antibodies in human serum or plasma, targeting SARS-CoV-2 related antigens.

DIPCOVAN kit offers a significantly faster turn-around-time as it requires just 75 minutes to conduct the test without any cross reactivity with other diseases. The kit has a shelf life of 18 months.

Sources said that Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd, the industry partner, will commercially launch the product during the first week of June 2021. Readily available stock at the time of launch will be 100 kits with a production capacity of 500 kits/month after the launch.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has appreciated the efforts of DRDO and the industry in developing the kit at the time of need.

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary Department of Defence R&D & Chairman DRDO, complimented the teams involved in developing the kit and said that the initiative will help the people during the pandemic.

Also Read: Demand for Oxygen in the Southern States, Odisha and Assam Increases

Also Watch: