HYDERABAD: Dr A Velumani, Founder and Managing Director of Thyrocare Laboratories which has operations in Hyderabad, believes that if a COVID-19 vaccine does not come before March 2021, Indians may not need it unless it is less than USD 2 per dose.
An Indian scientist and entrepreneur, he started Thyrocare in 1995, using a business model in a focused biochemistry back end laboratory. Thyrocare is present in 10,000 cities across 10 countries. He believes in employing freshers and turning them into competent individuals. Excerpts from an interview with him.
How well is Telangana doing in the antibody test report?
Seven day moving average (SDMA) shows that as on date, both Telangana and Hyderabad are doing much better than the Thyrocare National COVIDd Antibody Index (TNCAI) of 25.17 per cent with the state Telangana of 31.97 per cent and the city of Hyderabad at 33.46 per cent. It means towards herd immunity; the race is faster.
What do you think the state can do better? What is the way ahead for Telangana?
TNCAI is improving and it is seen to be improving in many states steadily and faster. What was reported as 15 per cent as 20 days has already moved to 25.17 per cent as of today. It is our opinion that if we unlock, allow fights, trains and buses to run, though it might increase disease burden, it will certainly facilitate Antibody levels in society and thereby, can help to put an end to the peaking for the national numbers of infected and deaths, soon.
What are your thoughts on vaccines?
Vaccines are good provided they come faster, cheaper and safer. But nothing truly is seen as immediate solution and if it happens still it will take quarters if not years. But if more than 40 per cent to 50 per cent of population have already developed antibodies before the vaccine comes, it would be less relevant for the society, though still it can save a lot of deaths based on its efficacy. In our estimate for every one death, approximately 10,000 are exposed to the virus and get antibodies.
It is a good news since no one could explain why the UK has 600 deaths per million, whereas in India it is only 25 deaths per million. This explains that what saves us is our immunity index. Yes, antibodies may not live longer for years.
They will die off if no exposure for a continuous year or two but antibodyproducing cells (lymphocytes) will remain in body with memory and they would give instant production in future exposures. This is exactly what vaccines also do and for that people are investing billions. If the vaccine does not come before March 2021, Indians may not need it unless it is less than USD 2 per dose.
RT-PCR tests - How easily can it be done?
RT PCR test involves considerable capital invest menton infrastructure development of clean room facility, negative pressure rooms, level three biosafety facilities and on advanced technologies for polymerase chain reaction. It also requires highly skilled technologists and experienced human resources to handle right from swab collection to testing to reporting of accurate results.
A laboratory has to be NABL accredited for RT-PCR tests and must have ICMR approval in order to do RT PCR test. Also, the laboratory has to comply every month to external quality control checks being done by NIV Pune.
However, once infrastructure is in place, it can clear 100s of patients per hour with highest reliability in large laboratories. One worry is time taken for the swab to reach to the laboratory, where it may vary from two to 20 hours.
How does one register for it in Hyderabad and how soon would the response be?
One can avail home collection service. He / she can contact us through website /phone / call. The customer executive will collect the basic information like name, address, pincode, mobile number, doctor’s prescription and can book the test. The swab collection is done in home collection mode and reports are made available in next 24 to 48 hours.