Now, 179 COVID-19 testing kits available in India; about 40 indigenous

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved 179 COVID-19 testing kits until mid-February. These testing kits include those produced by 30-40 Indian companies.

In the early days of COVID-19 outbreak last year, India relied on imports from leading medical companies like Roche Diagnostic, Korea's S.D Biosensor, Siemens Healthcare, Thermofisher, Abbott Healthcare, apart from Chinese and South Korean manufacturers.

Pune's Mylab was among the first to commercialise an indigenous testing kit in March, 2020. According to sources, now the majority of testing solutions are procured from domestic companies, as they are cost-competitive.

According to a Market Research report, the global Covid testing kit market will generate revenue of $97,903.2 million by 2027, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.58%.

The indigeneous RT-PCR (Real-time polymerase chain reaction) kits developed in India include companies like Trivitron Healthcare, Tata Medical and Diagnostic, Genes2Me, Karwa Enterprises, Medipol Pharmaceutical India, Wrig Nanosystems, Aspen Laboratories, Bhatt Biotech India, Mylab, GCC Biotech India, POCTServices, Helini Biomolecules, Achira Labs, Nucleus Diagnosys, Molbio Diagnostics, Affigenix Biosolutions, Biosystems Diag, Athenes Dx, NeoDx Biotech Labs, Cepheid India, Pontika Aerotech, Cosara Diagnostics, Genetix Biotech Asia, AB Diagnopath, Invitrogen Bioservices India etc.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a simple and widely used molecular biology technique to amplify and detect DNA and RNA sequences in cells. Compared to traditional methods like DNA cloning and amplification which require many days for results, PCR and RT-PCR results are available within a few hours.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the leading global medical devices manufacturers, had announced to produce Covid-19 testing kits and diagnostic solutions at its manufacturing facility in Bengaluru for the Indian market, with a capacity to manufacture up to 10 million tests every month.

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