Mylab ships first batch of Covid-19 test kits to government and private labs

Pune-based molecular diagnostics company Mylab Discovery Solutions has developed the first ‘Made in India’ Covid-19 testing kit recently. The company, in a statement, announced that it is ready with the first batch of test kits and will start supplying them to the government and private labs.

In the first batch, the company will supply testing kits to conduct 15,000 tests. The kit is the first one to receive commercial approval from Indian FDA/Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and is developed in a record time of six weeks. Given the low testing rate in the country, India’s very own testing kit will help in fighting back the global pandemic Covid-19. Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit screens and detects the infection within 2.5 hours, compared to seven plus hours taken by current protocols.

“At present, Mylab can produce kits to test for 20,000 samples per day. However, in case of an adverse situation, the company can ramp-up its capacity to ship kits to conduct 50,000 tests per day,” said Rahul Patil, Executive Director and Operations Head, Mylab Discovery Solutions.

Mylab test kits cost nearly one-third to one-fourth of the cost of the price cap provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). However, private and government labs approved by ICMR can conduct the tests for Covid-19. Of late, ICMR has approved more than 100 government labs and 29 private labs across the country for testing.

“We are continuously working with all the testing labs to predict the demand and schedule the supplies of the testing kits.We are letting them know of supply schedules ahead of time”, said Sujit Jain, Advisor and Mentor on Corporate Strategy, Mylab Discovery Solutions.