IIT-Guwahati to become India's first educational institute to produce Covid-19 test kits

Guwahati: In a significant development, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati has become successful in producing coronavirus testing kits. With this, it has become the first educational institute in the country to be able to do so.

The COVID-19 test kit includes RNA extraction, RT-PCR, and Viral Transport Media (VTM) kits. These kits are necessary for confirming the presence of novel coronavirus in a swab sample The institute is producing the kits in collaboration with the RR Animal Healthcare Limited.

This comes at a time when India is having to procure COVID-19 testing kits from China, America, and the European countries. The IIT-Guwahati produced kits are available at a very affordable price. IIT-Guwahati also takes much less time to deliver these kits when compared to the foreign-made ones.

More than 2.5 lakh VTM kits developed at IIT-G have already been procured by the NHM, Assam and many laboratories from across the country have also bought the indigenous testing kits from them.

"The performances of the indigenously developed RNA extraction kits have been highly satisfactory as per tests conducted by Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). The RT-PCR kits are also being validated and the production and supply of these kits is likely to commence soon," Dr. Parameswar Krishnan Iyer, Dean of Public Relations, Branding and Ranking at IIT-Guwahati, informed media.

He also said that the institute is ready to work with the government, National Health Mission and hospitals, and testing centres to begin large-scale production and supply.

The "SPILD" VTM kits, RT-PCR and RNA isolation kits have been developed at the centre for nanotechnology at IIT-G by a team headed by Parameswar Krishnan Iyer and Siddhartha Sankar Ghosh from IIT-G and Dr. Labanyamoy Kole and Dr. Debashish Dutta of RR Animal Healthcare. The "SPILD" Covid-19 kits have already passed the viability test from a laboratory and are ready to be produced for sale.

This ingenuity, it may be said, comes as a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan" initiative.

Dean Iyer further said, "As per reports, India has been importing these kits from several countries at exorbitant prices. Our kits can now replace them and large-scale production would in turn also generate employment in the healthcare and allied sectors. We believe the demand for these kits will go up as the number of tests increase in the country."

"Our institute has always been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19. The kits were developed following requests from NHM, Assam, and they have been vetted by GMCH and ICMR", stated IIT-G director TG Sitharam.