An alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has developed an indigenous coronavirus testing kit in response to World Health Organisation (WHO)'s call to all countries to ramp up COVID-19 testing.
AMU alumnus from the Department of Biochemistry, Nadeem Rahman, Director, NuLife Consultants and Distributors Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, has developed an Antibody based testing kit which takes less than 15 minutes to yield accurate result, according to a statement from the central university.
The new kit, which costs Rs 500, will provide the general population in India with adequate access to cost-effective testing, the statement said.
According to the varsity, Mr Rahman was permitted by the government authorities during the nation-wide lockdown to reopen the NuLife Consultants and Distributors Pvt. Ltd lab, where he developed the kit to do finger-prick tests, which only takes nearly fifteen minutes to yield accurate results.
The testing kits launched in just a span of two weeks have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and soon the regular production will start, claimed Mr Rahman.
"We are confident of churning out one lakh kits a day to bring a faster and suitable solution for large-scale screenings," he added.
Thanking the Government of Uttar Pradesh and ICMR for putting the trust in his team, Mr Rahman pointed out that a set of the testing kit will cost around 500-600 Rupees and the price is likely to further go down.
"The best part of this rapid and lesser time-taking kit is that it is economical to produce unlike the expensive RT-PCR testing kits," he said.
Mr Rahman added that the anti-body based kit will ease the pressure on the pathology services struggling with COVID-19 detection in the Country.
"We are proud that an AMU alumnus has developed the much needed affordable testing kit when we see the surge in the number of coronavirus cases despite stringent measures are being implemented in the country. It is a major cause of worry," said AMU Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor, while praising Mr Rahman for his invaluable contribution to India's fight to curb COVID-19.
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