IIT-Delhi develops coronavirus test kit, gets ICMR approval
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has developed a COVID-19 test kit, which has got the approval of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). "We started working on it by the end of January and got it ready in three months. We wanted to contribute to affordable low-cost diagnostics that could be used in large numbers," V Perumal, a professor at IIT-Delhi told news agency ANI.
The testing kit developed by IIT-Delhi is a swab testing kit.
"Testing will be cheaper than all existing devices. Out device is affordable for commercial production," Perumal added.
ICMR, on Thursday, gave approval to the test kit that has been developed by IIT Delhi's Kusuma School of Viological Sciences (KSBS).
IIT Delhi issued an official statement in the matter. The statement read, "The assay has been validated at the ICMR with a sensitivity and specificity of 100 per cent. This makes IIT Delhi the first academic institute to have obtained ICMR approval for a real time PCR based diagnostic assay."
