Pune based Mylab becomes first Indian company to get Covid-19 test kits validated

[Anik101]

Mylab has promised that it can manufacture up to 100000 tests in a week which can be further scaled up if needed.


Pune based Mylab becomes first Indian company to get Covid-19 test kits validated

DIVYA RAJAGOPAL
ET Bureau | Updated: Mar 24, 2020, 12.46 PM IST

Agencies
Representative image

MUMBAI: Pune based molecular diagnostic company Mylab becomes the first Indian company to have received the validation for its Covid-19 diagnostic test kits also known as the Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests by the Drug Controller of India, after the National Institute of Virology validated its test. The other company to have received the approval is Germany's Altona Diagnostics.

In the current lab based testing it takes four hours for test results to come out, Mylab's turn around time is 2 1/2 hours, said Dr Gautam Wankhde, Medical Director Mylab to ET. The company's kits can study 1000 samples from large labs and 200 from smaller labs. Mylabs is looking to price its kits around INR 1200.

As India fights the Covid-19 spread the government has come under criticism for not doing enough tests. The Indian Council of Medical Research has so far limited the tests only for patients with travel history and those who are "suspected cases" of Covid-19. India ranks lowest in terms of testing done per million population. It is testing 15 people in 1 million.

However the government's research body has been looking to expand its testing criteria. It allowed few private labs to start providing tests under a prescription from qualified doctor. However these labs can't start testing unless they get the reagents or testing kits required to start these tests.

 

[Baba_Yaga]

At least something good is happening...We also need more companies making ventilators.

 

[Anik101]

At least something good is happening...We also need more companies making ventilators.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1242345851776724992

Focus is on ramping up ventilator manufacturing for coronavirus patients, says Skanray Technologies
Updated : March 24, 2020 11:07 AM IST



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SHEREEN BHAN

@ShereenBhan

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ventilators. So, what is the situation in India?Industry estimates suggest India currently has nearly 1 lakh ventilators. And sources suggest the shortage could be of around 70,000 as cases increase.

Bangalore based ventilator manufacturer, Skanray Technologies plans to make one lakh locally sourced ventilators in two to three months. Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Vishwaprasad Alva, Founder & MD at Skanray Tech said, "Currently we are making about 200 ventilators per month. We have two units that are capable of manufacturing ventilators - one in Mysore and another one in Italy. We currently have an order of 5000 ventilators and a requirement of 1,00,000 ventilators."

"To ramp up from 200 to 5000, we have already taken action to take capacities from two other suppliers. We have also worked around certain imported components to be able to ramp up in case there is a shortage," he said.

Globally, the medical equipment manufacturers are stressed because of the Covid-19 epidemic and most of the countries have banned export of ventilators. There are couple of components that are specific to the medical industry and we need to find equivalents from defence or aerospace that can take care of the requirements even though they are expensive, he added.

"In a month's time we will be able to get to 5000 ventilators. The Karnataka government has already placed the order. We have the Mysore administration and officials from the department of industries helping us to setup a supplier base and using the spare capacity of their ancillaries. There are some components that need to be airlifted from the supplier's location. We are in touch with the Indian government to take help of the embassy to get the components directly to Mysore. Fortunately, in Mysore we have three other electronic assembly companies that can help us to ramp up to 5000 ventilators", he further said.

"For the 1,00,000 ventilator plan, we are working at another design which is simpler to make and is adequate for the coronavirus patients. There are ICU ventilators and anaesthesia ventilators. Anaesthesia ventilators are easier to manufacture. We have about 350 design engineers globally and we have redeployed the R&D team from non-critical component design to ventilators. I think in a week's time we will be turning around another ventilator that is easier to manufacture and which has lesser dependency on imported components", Alva said.

 

[Chhatrapati]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1242486231562211330

 

[GodToons]

Indigenous capacity always helps a country to scale up and being trust worthy.

Czech republic media is overflown about news of upto 80% false negative from 150K chinese corona test kits. They have reverted to local test kits where capacity is 7K-10K

 

[Anik101]

DRDO to produce 5000 ventilators. Back in 2011 DRDO had developed ventilator which was meant to be mass produced in case of Nuclear, Biological or Chemical attack on India.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1243178964438282241

IIT Kanpur to develop low-cost portable ventilators to aid medical infrastructure
https://m.economictimes.com/news/sc...dical-infrastructure/articleshow/74831113.cms