Mylab Discovery, a Pune based biotechnology company that develops and commercializes molecular diagnostic detection kits, is all set to deliver the second batch of India made Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing kits today, i.e., March 30, 2020.
Christened as “PATHODETECT”, the first batch of 150 testing kits was shipped to diagnostic labs in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru (Bangalore) last week. Mylab Discovery is the first Indian company to have developed such a kit.
Developed under the leadership of Virologist – Minal Dakhave Bhosale, who works as Research & Development Head at Mylab Discovery, each kit can test 100 samples and costs Rs. 1,200/- (U.S. $ 16 or £ 13), which is a quarter of Rs. 4,500/- that India pays to import COVID-19 testing kits from abroad.
The company claims it can produce up to 2,00,000 kits in a week, if needed. The kit has been developed in a record time of 6 weeks instead of 3-4 months. Besides, the kit takes 2 ½ hours to detect if a person is COVID-19 positive, as opposed to other kits which take 6-7 hours.
For the records, Bhosale who was having a pregnancy complication, continued working on the development of kit. After submitting the kit to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune on March 18, 2020, she submitted the proposal to Food & Drug Administration (FDA) India and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for commercial approval. A day later, she went ahead and gave birth to a baby girl on March 19, 2020.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhosale said, “It was an emergency, so I took this on as a challenge. I have to serve my nation.”
Interacting with Press Trust of India (PTI), the largest news agency in India, over phone, Bhosale said, “It was like giving birth to two babies.”
Congratulating Bhosale on her work and motherhood, the Chairman of Mahindra Group – Anand Mahindra tweeted, “Ms. Bhosale, you delivered not just the test kit and your baby, but you also delivered a ray of hope to the country. We stand and salute you…”
A similar message by CEO of NITI Aayog – Amitabh Kant on twitter read, “Inspirational! Delivered test kit before delivering her baby. Meet Minal Dakhave Bhosale, the R&D Chief of Mylab. She led the team that designed India’s first indigenous #COVID19 testing kit. Who said women can’t do well in #STEM.”
Before submitting the kits for evaluation, the team had to check and re-check all the parameters to ensure its results that were precise, and accurate.
Recalling her experience, Bhosale said, “If you carry out 10 tests on the same sample, all 10 results should be same. And we achieved that. Our kit was perfect.”
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), under which NIV operates, also agreed that the kits give 100% results. Over the past few days, India has scaled up testing. Initially, only the State labs were allowed to test for Coronavirus, but now the private labs can also do the testing. More than 15 private companies have been given approval to commercially sell diagnostic kits based on licences they have obtained in the United States (U.S.), European Union (EU) and some other countries. The total number of Government laboratories approved for testing OCVID-19 is 122. Of this, 13 labs are already operational while the remaining 9 are in the process.
As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India recorded 1071 cases and 29 deaths of COVID-19 as of March 30, 2020.
