Getting closer to corona test kit production

Gonoshasthaya Kendra yesterday received the reagents that were needed to manufacture the low-cost kit developed by the organisation to detect novel coronavirus infection.

"We have got half a kilogram of reagents from a company based on China's Guangzhou. A Bangladeshi who flew from China by a US Bangla flight carried it for us," Mohib Ullah Khondoker, managing director at the Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Limited, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Bangladesh embassy in China has extended all-out cooperation in this regard, he added.

"It's a great news that we have received the reagents," Mohib said, adding that they have already requested the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research to provide five samples of Covid-19 positive cases to trial the new kit.

"After testing the samples, we will hand over the kits to the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).

"The DGDA will then send the kits to the World Health Organization (WHO). After getting approval from the WHO, we can go for mass production," Mohib added.

The raw materials arrived two weeks after the DGDA issued a no-objection certificate to Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Limited, a sister concern of Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK), for its import.

Initially, GK attempted to import the reagents from the UK, but as no flights are currently being operating between Dhaka and the UK, it is taking some extra time.

Meanwhile, the organisation has imported them from China considering the urgency of the issue.

Until yesterday, a total of nine people died of Covid-19 and 88 tested positive.

Health experts have strongly urged the authorities to widen the scope of Covid-19 test to understand the extent of its spread in the country.

Widespread testing, social distancing and hand washing are the most important tasks to prevent the spread of the virus, according to health experts.

They say if GK can locally produce the test kit, it will be very helpful for the country amid a global shortage of test kits and personal protection equipment.

A team of Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech has developed the kit called Rapid Dot Blot, which can detect coronavirus infection in 15 minutes.

The team, led by Bijon Kumar Sil, included Nihad Adnan, Raeed Jamiruddin and Firoz Ahmed.

Bijon was among the researchers who had developed a kit to diagnose SARS coronavirus in 2003. Rapid Dot Blot is patented under his name.

GK is eying to keep the production cost of a kit within Tk 200 so that a diagnosis can be done at a cost of Tk 300-350.