DRDO develops Covid-19 antibody detection kit 'Dipcovan'

NEW DELHI: The Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), a laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has developed a Covid-19 antibody detection kit called 'Dipcovan' which offers results in just 75 minutes.
The defence ministry in a statement said that the kit offers a significantly faster turn-around-time as it requires just 75 minutes to conduct the test without any cross-reactivity with other diseases.
"The Dipcovan kit can detect both spike as well as nucleocapsid (S&N) proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus with a high sensitivity of 97 per cent and specificity of 99 per cent," the statement said.
The kit has a shelf life of 18 months. It has been developed in association with Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, a development and manufacturing diagnostics company based out of New Delhi.
Vanguard Diagnostics will commercially launch the product during the first week of June, it noted.
"Readily available stock at the time of launch will be 100 kits (approximately 10,000 tests) with a production capacity of 500 kits/month after the launch. It is expected to be available at about Rs 75 per test," it added.
The Dipcovankit was developed indigenously by the DRDO's scientists, followed by "extensive validation on more than 1,000 patient samples at various Covid designated hospitals in Delhi, it mentioned.
"Three batches of the product were validated during the last one year. The antibody detection kit is approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in April 2021," the ministry said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh has appreciated the efforts of DRDO and the industry in developing the kit at the time of need, the statement added.
(With agency inputs)