COVID-19 testing: First Made-in-India rapid antigen test kit ‘Pathocatch’ gets ICMR nod.
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New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday evening gave its nod to the first Indian manufactured rapid antigen test kit to diagnose coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The rapid antigen test kit named ‘Pathocatch’ was manufactured by Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions and is the first Indian made test kit to be granted an approval.
The Mylab Discovery solutions in a statement said that the ‘Pathocatch Covid-19 Antigen Rapid testing kit’ will be available for order immediately and will be priced at around Rs 450. The development adds another product to the company’s suite of testing solutions for COVID-19 virus, Mylab said.
“After bringing an affordable RT-PCR test to reduce dependence on foreign kits, we launched Compact XL to accelerate COVID-19 testing. Now, with the approval for an antigen testing kit, we will cover the whole spectrum of COVID-19 testing and leave no stone unturned to fight this pandemic,” Mylab Discovery Solutions MD Hasmukh Rawal said as reported by news agency PTI.Health experts believe that to keep up with the pace of infections, India needs a combination of both antigen and RT-PCR testing, the company’s statement added.
The antigen-based testing along with the ‘real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction’ (rRT-PCR) testing kits is being used to increase the overall testing in the country and rapid treatment of patients after the diagnose.
The Rapid Antigen test is quicker than the rRT-PCR tests. It takes only 30 minutes to get the test results as compared to about 5 hours taken by rRT-PCR testing. Another difference between the two is that rapid antigen testing does not require a sophisticated laboratory, which is a key requirement of rRT-PCR testing.
Earlier, the ICMR had approved the rapid antigen test kit by South Korea’s SD Biosensor, which manufactures its products in Manesar, Haryana.
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