ICMR clears new test for Covid-19, Kochi lab to ramp up production

With ICMR listing the faster and accurate RT Lamp technology for confirmatory testing of Covid-19 in labs across India, a Kochi-based company Tuesday said it will make available over 10 lakh tests of reagents and supportive equipment in the coming months to augment the nation’s continuing fight against coronavirus.

Kochi-based Agappe Diagnostics Ltd (ADL), claimed to be the first company to roll out this technology in India, said in a release it will work closely with the Centre and state governments in their efforts to increase the rate of testing to tackle the spread of the pandemic.

“RT Lamp-based test kits can provide accurate test results in the shortest possible turnaround time and at competitive rates. This will relieve the public health sector from the heavy burden of test result backlogs,” company Managing Director Thomas John said.

“It will also address the system overload caused by slower results from other confirmatory testing processes for covid,” he said while launching commercial production of the RT Lamp-based equipment and reagent through virtual conference here.

He noted that in recent days, test rates across the states have been fluctuating and the number of Covid cases have crossed one crore as on Monday, indicating that conducting more and more tests was the only alternative before the country.

“The listing of RT Lamp technology for Covid testing makes it possible for laboratories located in rural India to adopt this test protocol with the minimum investment in infrastructure and logistics,” John said.

He said the RT Lamp-based Tests will help reduce backlogs in testing patients for Covid-19 because the process can identify positive samples in 10 minutes.

The equipment can be easily handled by lab personnel as it is simple and compact in nature, John said.

The first unit of RT Lamp equipment, under the brand name Mispa Lume, was handed to Dr Ramesh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer and promoter, Metropolis Kerala, by D M Vasudevan, well-known medical academician and Director and head of the R&D of Agappe.

The company officials said Agappe Diagnostics is the first company in India to get ICMR validation for its Covid test kits based on RT Lamp technology with a specificity of 100 per cent and sensitivity of 98.7 per cent.