In an Exclusive Interview with Timesnownews.com, Dr GSK Velu, spoke on how the company fast-tracked process to develop COVID-19 testing kits, which includes a 100 per cent ‘Made in India’ kit. Many organisations are coming up with new products, including test kits, to help the government tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Chennai-based company has developed indigenous testing kit for the COVID-19. The firm said it will take anywhere between two hours to four hours for its kit to detect coronavirus infection

New Delhi: Widespread testing has been repeatedly emphasised as a key strategy in flattening the curve of the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps, until a vaccine that targets the deadly virus is ready. Yet, shortages of testing kits were among the several roadblocks that hindered public health agencies’ ability to conduct widespread testing in recent weeks.

As the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly, creating panic among people worldwide, many organisations and start-ups in India are coming up with new products, including test kits, to help the government tackle the outbreak. One of them is Trivitron Healthcare, a Chennai-based and one of India’s largest medical device companies, which has developed COVID-19 diagnostic test kits.

In an Exclusive Interview with Timesnownews.com, Dr GSK Velu, Chairman and Managing Director at Trivitron Group of Companies, spoke on how the company fast-tracked process to develop COVID-19 testing kits, which includes a 100 per cent ‘Made in India’ kit, and why the ICMR has approved only RT-PCR testing kits in India amid the global pandemic.

Dr GS Velu, Chairman and Managing Director at Trivitron
Dr GS Velu, Chairman and Managing Director at Trivitron

How long did it take Trivitron to develop the COVID-19 testing kit?

Actually, Trivitron had a joint venture in China, which started in November 2019. But before this joint venture would get fully operational, the COVID-19 crisis happened in China. And during this crisis, our JV partner based in Jinan, China, developed the COVID-19 RT-PCR. Based on that expertise and experience we were contemplating doing a full ‘Made in India’ kit in February itself, but we never anticipated that we will be also exposed so badly to the COVID-19 crisis. So we fast-tracked and started preparing at a two-fold approach. We are in the process of importing some kits from China, which is a CE-IVD, approved kit, which will be coming this weekend. In the meantime, we have also developed 100% ‘Made in India’ kit including primers, probes, master mix all manufactured in India and that should go for the NIV (National Institute of Virology) validation next week.

What do we know about the RT-PCR kit for COVID-19, including the effectiveness and accuracy of this testing kit so far?

The only kit which is allowed in India is RT-PCR kit. Basically, RT PCR is a polymerase chain reaction, which has these five components namely primers, probes, master mix, calibrators and controls, which are actually used for confirmatory tests. Usually, we do a screening test, then a confirmatory test, but here we are straight away doing a confirmatory test so that we don’t really create unnecessary panic by actually, you know, presenting false-positive cases. That is the reason why the ICMR has only approved RT-PCR kits and these kits give a confirmatory diagnosis for COVID-19 disease.

What is the cost of getting tested for the coronavirus infection?

Basically, the ‘Made in India’ kit that we are going to produce in India will cost 500 rupees per test, whereas the other one which will be imported from China, will cost anywhere between 800 to 900 rupees per test. The government has fixed 4500 rupees as the maximum price a lab can charge to a patient - but government laboratories are doing it free of cost.

We learnt that Mylab’s COVID-19 test kit can screen and detect coronavirus infection within 2.5 hours as compared with over 7 hours taken by current protocols, the company said. How soon can Trivitron test kit detect coronavirus infection?

Usually, the detection depends on the instrument platform - like based on which instrument is costlier, typical hospital or a private laboratory will have. It can take anywhere between say around two hours to four hours for Trivitron’s RT-PCR kit to detect COVID-19.

Is Trivitron ready for mass production of testing kits?

Yes, after approval we can go ahead and produce kits as per demand. We have capacity to produce from 500 to 7,50,000 unit of kits.