Mylab partners with Adar Poonawalla, Abhijit Pawar to scale up production of COVID-19 test kits

Pune-based molecular diagnostics firm Mylab Discovery Solutions on Thursday said it has partnered with Serum India CEO Adar Poonawalla and AP Globale Chairman Abhijit Pawar to scale up the operations and escalate faster delivery of its COVID-19 testing kits.

The test kit by the company was the first 'Made in India' kit to receive commercial approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSC), and is named as Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit, it had earlier said.

Funds invested will be used for scaling production of COVID-19 testing kits and expansion of molecular diagnostic solutions, Mylab said in a statement.

However, the company did not share financial details of the deals.

Commenting on the development, Poonawalla said: "In the next few weeks we will be ramping up the production of the Covid-19 testing kits taking from 1.5 lakh tests/week to 20 lakh tests/week".

The shortage of testing kits will come to an end in a month or two, he added.

"Mylab and its team have shown exceptionally innovative capabilities when they were able to develop a time-saving testing kit within 6-weeks of its outbreak...The investment towards Mylab will enable them to build their infrastructure and expand their capabilities further," Poonawalla said.

Global innovation is the need of the hour to curb this pandemic that has affected millions across the world, he added.

"This partnership will ensure we do our bit to help in this time of crisis," Pawar said.

Emphasising the importance of the partnership, Mylab Discovery Solutions MD Hasmukh Rawal said: "This partnership can impact billions of people across the world, especially India".

Mylab's COVID-19 test kit screens and detects the infection within 2.5 hours as compared with over 7 hours taken by current protocols, the company had earlier said.

Biotechnology firm Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd offers a wide spectrum of molecular diagnostics solutions, developed in-house by its R&D team in Pune.