Odisha made Covid-19 rapid antigen test kit gets ICMR approval

Bhubaneswar: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the Covid-19 rapid antigen test kit developed by a private company in Odisha.

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

“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,” RMRC director Dr Sanghamitra Pati was quoted as saying.

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She said the 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.

IMGENEX, CEO, Dr Sujay Singh said they started work on the kit in June 2021 and ICMR has approved it on Thursday, PTI has reported.

He said the firm can manufacture 2 lakh kits which can be ramped up to 20 lakh kits per month. The kit is likely to be available in the market in two months, he added.

According to Singh, the market price of the kit will be lower than others available in the market.