Zydus supplies first batch of 30,000 Covid Kavach Elisa tests to ICMR

The first batch of 30,000 Covid Kavach Elisa tests manufactured by Zydus Diagnostics has been supplied to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) free of cost.

These test kits have been manufactured in technology transfer with ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) of Pune for surveillance purposes, said Zydus Diagnostics (a unit of Cadila Healthcare Ltd) in a statement on Thursday.

Robust antibody tests are critical for surveillance and understanding the proportion of the population exposed to SARS Cov-2 infection. ICMR-NIV has successfully developed an indigenous IgG Elisa test for anti-body detection for Covid-19.

The test was validated at two sites in Mumbai and has been found to have high sensitivity and specificity. In addition, the test will have the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of two-and-a-half hours.

Moreover, Elisa-based testing is easily possible even at the district level. After development at ICMR-NIV technology has been commercialised by Zydus Cadila for mass-scale production.

The test kits then manufactured at Zydus Cadila were validated by NIV and were found to have high sensitivity and specificity. The test named as Covid Kavach Elisa was manufactured in just four days of receiving all necessary materials from ICMR-NIV.

"This reaffirms our commitment to do everything that we can to help the nation fight this healthcare challenge," said Chairman Pankaj R Patel.

"We believe that the need of the hour is to be prepared in every way that we can with the latest diagnostic technologies and that is why we are providing the initial supplies at no costs.

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