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| DST supported startup develops affordable test kits for early diagnosis of Covid-19 in rural & resource constraint areas |
New Delhi (Lisbon Times):- A Mumbai-based startup is ready with its affordable Rapid Antigen Test that
offers COVID 19 diagnosis & surveillance at the cost of Rs
100 per test.
A test developed by Patanjali Pharma will complement the gold
standard RTPCR & Rapid antigen tests and make it one of the most affordable
ones available in the market.
The Centre
for Augmenting WAR with COVID-19 Health Crisis (CAWACH), an initiative by
the Department of Science and Technology (DST),
supported the startup in July 2020 to develop Rapid Covid 19 diagnostics (both
Rapid antibody and antigen tests for surveillance and early diagnosis of Covid-
19, respectively).
Dr.
Vinay Saini, Director, Patanjali Pharma, incubated the Startup in SINE, IIT
Bombay, and developed the R & D lab as well as products within 8-9 months.
They applied for the required licenses and evaluated and validated the products
at different Covid Centres for knowing and further improving their efficacy.
“It
was an amazing experience to do internal validation of our products in Covid 19
patients and Viral Transport Medium (VTM) samples containing nasopharyngeal
swabs of Covid patients. I accompanied my team members for multiple evaluations
of developed products at different covid sites in Mumbai to boost up their
confidence,” Dr. Vinay Saini said, speaking about the journey of the development of
the product.
The startup plans to launch the rapid Covid-19 antigen tests in early June 2021.
The Rapid covid-19 tests (~10-15 minutes) would be helpful for early diagnosis
of Covid-19 in rural areas, doctor’s clinics, and resource constraint areas where
pathology and diagnostic labs are not available. The test is affordable and
would be helpful to control the pandemic.
Presently,
they are working on Rapid Covid-19 antibody tests, Rapid TB Tests with DST SEED
Grant & BRICS Countries, CRISPR based Covid 19 tests through Covid 19
Ignition Grant- Indo US Project under IUSSTF with University of Florida, USA).
For more details, Dr. Vinay Saini, Director, Patanjali Pharma Pvt Ltd, (www.patanjalipharma.com,91- 9987253095), can be contacted.
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