Pune-Based Company Becomes First to Manufacture Indian Made COVID-19 Testing Kit

Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt. Ltd., has become the first molecular diagnostic company to develop the first Made in India COVID-19 coronavirus testing kit. The company has recently announced that it is ready with the first batch of test kits and will soon begin the supply to the government and private labs.

Inspired by Hon’ble Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi Ji, we are proud to be the 1st Indian company to create COVID-19 detection kit. We thank all govt. authorities for their support.#MakeinIndia #IndiaFightsCorona@narendramodi@PMOIndia@ICMRDELHI@CDSCO_INDIA_INF
+NIV Pune pic.twitter.com/ghHKy1ke5R

— Mylab Discovery Solutions (@MylabSolutions) March 26, 2020

The first batch of test kits by Mylab Discovery Solutions will be able to conduct 15,000 tests. This kit is the first one to have received commercial approval from the Indian FDA/ Central Drugs Standard testing rate in the country.

Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit screens and detects the infection within 2.5 hours, which is far more effective and time-saving compared to the current protocols that take over 7 hours.

Dr Gautam Wankhede, Medical Affairs Director at Mylab, said,

We can scale this up further and double our production within 8-10 days or a little more depending on the requirement. Our wonderful R&D team has worked relentlessly to develop the testing kit for COVID-19. Our kit screens and detects the infection within 2.5 hours as compared to 6-7 hours taken by current protocols, which is less than half the time conventional kits take.

Private and governmental labs approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) have been conducting the tests for COVID-19. As of March 25, ICMR has approved over 100 government and 29 private labs to conduct coronavirus tests across the country.

Hasmukh Rawal, MD, Mylab Discovery Solutions, said,

With emphasis on ‘Make in India’ and support from local and central government, the COVID- 19 kit, has been made as per WHO/CDC guidelines. It was developed and evaluated in a record time.

The company, which received statutory approvals on March 23 from authorities, can manufacture over 15,000 testing kits per day from its facility at Lonavala in Pune district and is thriving to increase the production up to 25,000 kits per day.

Developed in a record time of six weeks, this testing kit is expected to increase the low rate of testing for the COVID-19 infection in the country. Apparently, at the time of writing this story, the total number of coronavirus cases in India has reached over 750 with 19 recorded deaths.

Via: India Times