Hyderabad-based CCMB ties with Meril Diagnostics to scale up dry swab tests

Meril’s Extraction-free Dry Swab Kit can be used to isolate the viral RNA from dry swab samples and then can be directly used for RT-PCR

Hyderabad: The city-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) on Wednesday announced collaboration with Meril Diagnostics for commercially scaling up the Dry Swab-based tests across diagnostic labs in the country.

Meril’s Extraction-free Dry Swab Kit can be used to isolate the viral RNA from dry swab samples and then can be directly used for RT-PCR. Meril Diagnostics is currently equipped to manufacture two crore kits a month and each kit suffices for 100 tests. Using these kits, a test will cost between Rs 45 and Rs. 60.

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The CCMB researchers have recently developed a simple and fast method of Dry Swab-based Direct RT-PCR. The CCMB technique was approved by ICMR based on their independent validation. Dry swab technique is a simple variation of the existing gold standard RT-PCR method and can easily scale up the testing by 2 to 3 fold with no new investment of resources.

“We are the first company to commercially launch the dry swab kit. We truly believe the use case for the dry swab collection sample technique is very large. It is imperative in these times to get a quick RT-PCR result and this method helps in doing so by eliminating the lengthy RNA extraction process,” Sanjeev Bhatt, vice president, Corporate Strategy, Meril.

Dr Vinay Nandicoori, Director, CCMB said that there is no need for separate steps of RNA extraction and purification through the dry swab technique.

Dr Rakesh Mishra, Advisor, CSIR-CCMB said that RNA extraction, even with automation, takes 4 hours for roughly 500 samples. “Viral Transport Medium (VTM) and RNA extraction both add a significant burden on money and time required for mass testing for coronavirus. We believe this method has the potential of bringing the costs and time of testing by 40-50 per cent in all kinds of settings,” he added.

Also read:

Dry swab test method cheap and best: CCMB study

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