WEB DESK

An alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University AMU has developed a coronavirus testing kit in response to the World Health Organisation”s (WHO) call to all the countries to ramp up Covid-19 tests, the varsity management said on Saturday afternoon.

Nadeem Rahman has developed the antibody based testing kit which takes less than 15 minutes to give an accurate result. It costs Rs 500 and the labs charge is Rs 4,500.

“What we have developed is anti-body based kit. It is also called rapid testing kit because it gives instant results. Technology of RT-PCR kit is different from rapid kits. RT-PCR requires a machine, skilled hand, extraction kit and expert hand. What we have developed is a very simple, easy to handle, cost effective and will help screening of more people in less time. The objective of our process for this kit was to give results instantly and easily and it is affordable,” Nadeem Rahman, Director of NuLife Consultants & Distributors (Pvt) Ltd, says in a video interview to The Wire.

He has set the price of the kit between Rs 500-600. On lateral flow technology, it is first COVID-19 testing kit developed in India. “I should acknowledge the support we got from ICMR which sent our product for approval and validation very fast and gave us results. We have got clearance from the govt and then have launched the product,” he said.His team was able to launch the product in 2 and a half weeks.