New Delhi: DRDO has prepared a new kit for an antibody test for early screening of corona. The name of this kit is DIPCOVAN. This kit can detect spikes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as nucleocapsid (S&N) proteins with high sensitivity of 97% and specificity of 99%.
DRDO develops COVID-19 antibody detection kit DIPCOVAN. The kit can detect spike as well as nucleocapsid (S&N) proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus.#AtmanirbharBharat https://t.co/ubsrYIxGyo pic.twitter.com/B356vaeKYG
— DRDO (@DRDO_India) May 21, 2021
It has been developed in collaboration with Delhi-based Vanguard Diagnostics Private Limited. This kit is completely indigenous and has been developed by scientists here. Subsequently, its capacity was verified after extensive investigation on samples of more than 1000 patients at various COVID hospitals in Delhi.
Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. will launch it during the first week of June 2021. Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. will launch around 100 kits of DIPCOVAN which will enable around 10,000 trials. It is expected to be priced at Rs 75 per test.
On Wednesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also approved a home testing kit called CoviSelf, which is a rapid antigen test (RAT) kit. With the help of this kit, people will be able to do their own corona test by sitting at home.
Source: PIB.GOV.in