HYDERABAD: The CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) announced on Saturday that it has decided to develop affordable and indigenous Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) kits for the diagnosis of Covid-19.
These RT-PCR kits will be developed indigenously using recombinant technology for the production of several enzymes used in the kit and optimised reagent conditions to match the regulatory requirements. This technology is said to bring down the overall cost of RT-PCR based diagnosis in the country.
The partnering company Genomix Biotech will optimise the kit for Covid diagnosis by adding the Taqman probes. CSIR-IICT and Genomix Biotech have planned to approach ICMR or its recognized laboratory for validation to launch the product in a couple of weeks.