The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Bhubaneswar has validated the first Rapid Antigen Test kit, ImCOV-Ag developed in Odisha to test presence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in people.
The Covid test through the new kit will be done by obtaining nasopharyngeal swab samples. The new test card which has been developed under the collaboration of RMRC and IMGENEX India Pvt. Ltd, Bhubaneswar will be available in the market within two months, informed Dr. Sujay Singh, CEO, IMGENEX.
As per the ICMR, till date, as many as 150 Antigen based Rapid Test Kits have been validated (including 31 revalidations), and have been found to be satisfactory.
“All types of Covid-19 test kits like rapid antigen, antibody as well as RT-PCR kits are used after being approved by ICMR. This ImCOV-Ag kit has been developed under the joint endeavour of ICMR, Bhubaneswar and IMGENEX India Pvt. Ltd, Bhubaneswar,” said Dr. Sanghamitra Pati, Director ICMR-RMRC, Bhubaneswar.
“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. The ICMR evaluated the kit by third party as per the existing protocols and issued the approval letter yesterday (January 27).
The RMRC director further said that the ICMR follows the criteria of sensitivity and specificity while approving any Covid test kit and this Odisha made kit has passed on all parameters.