The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has funded two companies, FastSense Diagnostics (FD) and Module Innovations (MI), to develop antibody kits as well as a quicker version of the Rapid RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test that is now the most widely used diagnostic approach to test for the virus.
MI is a Pune-based healthcare start-up that is working on a point of care diagnostic kit which can detect the virus in “10-15 minutes”. The diagnostic kit is being developed on the lines of one of its products called ‘Usense’, which is a point of care diagnostic kit that can detect urinary tract infections within 15 minutes. The start-up is now developing nCoVSENSE, a test device that can detect antibodies generated against COVID-19, Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, said in an interview on Monday.
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“We have also funded FastSense, which will develop a modified PCR test for confirmatory analysis in lesser time compared to existing detection methods (about 50 samples can be tested in an hour). This can provide on-the-spot results in less than 15 minutes per sample,” Professor Sharma said.
While several companies have been authorised to market indigenous or foreign RT-PCR test kits approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, there are only three companies that have been approved to sell rapid antigen tests: SD Biosensor, Vishat Diagnostics and Mylab Discovery Solutions, another Pune-based company that was also the first indigenous company approved to market its RT-PCR kits. Antigen tests detect presence of the virus quicker than the PCR but have a higher rate of missing out on those who may be carriers of the virus.
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A rapid PCR test using an alternate technology, called RT-LAMP, which reportedly speeds up testing, developed by the Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), an autonomous DST institute and whose technology has been transferred to the Kochi-based Agappe Technologies, has not been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), according to an updated list of approved manufacturers on the ICMR website.
Another company being supported, said Prof. Sharma, was Seagull Biosolutions, Pune, a start-up working on developing platform technologies to produce vaccine and immunotherapeutic agents. “Around the advent of COVID-19 in India, the DST had set aside ₹200 crore [out of its budget of roughly ₹6,000 crore] to address COVID-19,” said Prof. Sharma, “Diagnostics apart, we have been able to support the development of ventilators as well as even rope several basic-science researchers to develop innovative face masks that cost half, even less, than ones that are usually imported.”
