NEW DELHI:

As India's continues to fight the COVID pandemic and is looking for all kinds of solutions to end the epidemic, the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an antibody detection-based kit 'DIPCOVAN'.

According to the DRDO, the DIPCOVAN kit can detect both spikes as well as nucleocapsid (S&N) proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with a high sensitivity of 97 per cent and specificity of 99 per cent. 

The kit has been developed in collaboration with Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, a development and manufacturing diagnostics company based in New Delhi.

The Kit was developed indigenously by the scientists of the premier organisation after an extensive validation on more than 1,000 patient samples at various COVID designated hospitals in Delhi, a PIB release stated.

Further, three batches of the product were validated during the last one year for their effectiveness. 

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved the antibody detection kit in April 2021.

"DIPCOVAN is intended for the qualitative detection of IgG antibodies in human serum or plasma, targeting SARS-CoV-2 related antigens. It 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," the PIB release stated.

The product will be commercially launched by Industry partner Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd during the first week of June 2021.

Readily available stock at the time of launch will be 100 kits (approx 10,000 tests), with a production capacity of 500 kits/month after the launch. It is expected to be available at about Rs 75 per test.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has appreciated the efforts of DRDO in developing the kit at the time when the country is under medical emergency.

(Edited by Shankar Kumar Turha)

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