IIT Delhi launches 'Corosure' claimed to be World's most affordable COVID-19 testing kit

IIT Delhi has claimed to develop a World's most affordable COVID-19 testing kit. Read below to know more.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has announced that it has launched a COVID-19 diagnostic kit named COROSURE, which is being claimed as the World's most affordable kit. As per the reports, the base price for the RT-PCR test kit developed by IIT Delhi is Rs 300. After adding the RNA isolation and laboratory charges, the Kit will likely to cost up to Rs 650. This price is still cheaper than those that are currently avaiable in the market. This RT-PCR test kit is not only cost-effective but also can produce results within 3 hours.

Union Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has launched the World's most affordable RT-PCR based COVID-19 diagnostic kit developed by IIT Delhi online. During the launch, he said that this is a step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream to create self-reliant India. The testing kit has been approved by the Indian Institute of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex medical research body in the country. IIT Delhi is the first institute which had got the nod from the ICMR to come forward with the coronavirus testing methods. 

Also Read: IIT Delhi coronavirus testing kit gets nod from ICMR

They gave non-exclusive open licence to 10 companies for commercialising the test, but with a price rider of Rs 500 for the assay needed for testing. The kit has finally been commercialised by Newtech Medical Devices.

According to the team at IIT Delhi, the current testing methods available are "probe-based", while the one developed by them is a "probe-free" method, which reduces the testing cost without compromising on accuracy.
Using comparative sequence analyses, the IIT Delhi team identified unique regions (short stretches of RNA sequences) in the COVID-19 and SARS COV-2 genome. "These unique regions are not present in other human coronaviruses providing an opportunity to specifically detect COVID-19," Professor Vivekanandan Perumal, lead member of the team, had said.

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