BHUBANESWAR: In a boost to Make-in-Odisha initiatives, a rapid antigen test (RAT) kit developed by a Bhubaneswar-based company in association with the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research for use in detection of Covid-19.
RMRC Bhubaneswar director Sanghamitra Pati said the test kit (ImCOV-Ag) developed by IMGENEX India has very high sensitivity and specificity and can detect all variants of Covid-19.
‘Can produce upto 20L kits per month’
While the RMRC has done the internal validation, a third party (an expert group from Kerala) has evaluated its efficacy and accuracy.
The ICMR approved the test kit on the basis of RMRC validation and third party quality audit.
IMGENEX India founder Sujay Singh said the company can produce up to 20 lakh kits per month by April.
“Since the ICMR approval came on Thursday, the planning for production will be made immediately.
The actual production can start within a month or two. We can produce two lakh kits with the existing set up, which will be ramped up to produce 20 lakh kits per month,” Singh said.
He said since this would be the first test kit in eastern region, states in east India can get it quickly.
The company is yet to work out the price of the test kit, but Singh assured it would definitely be lower than that of the kits available in the market.
