ICMR gives nod to Odisha made COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit

Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: A Covid-19 rapid antigen test kit developed by a private company in Odisha has been validated by The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

IMGENEX India Pvt Ltd, Bhubaneswar has developed the kit with intellectual input from Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC). The kit can detect various variants of Covid-19 by using nasopharyngeal swab samples.

RMRC director Dr Sanghamitra Pati said, "The IMGENEX India Pvt Ltd, Bhubaneswar first started developing the kit and RMRC Bhubaneswar provided intellectual support for in-house testing and validation. Subsequently, we submitted the proposal for approval."

She further stated that kit ImCOV-Ag has very high sensitivity and specificity and can detect all variants of COVID-19. The ICMR has approved the test kits based on the RMRC's internal validation and a third party's (an expert group from Kerala) report on efficacy and accuracy.

According to IMGENEX, CEO, Dr Sujay Singh, the works on the kit started in June 2021 and ICMR has approved it on Thursday following certain procedures. The company can manufacture up to 2 lakh kits under existing facilities and it can be ramped up to 20 lakh kits per month.

The kit will be available in two months in the market, Singh said.

Singh said that the kit is likely to be available in the market in two months. Since it is the first such kit in eastern India, the states in this region can easily avail the facility.

The ICMR has so far validated as many as 150 Antigen based Rapid Test Kits (including 31 revalidations), sources in the health department said. PTI