Aligarh Muslim University alumnus develops COVID-19 testing kit
Aligarh: It looks incredible that an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University has developed the first indigenous coronavirus testing kit in response to World Health Organisation (WHO)’s call to all countries to ramp up coronavirus testing.
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) alumnus from the Department of Biochemistry, Mr Nadeem Rahman, Director, NuLife Consultants and Distributors Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi has developed India’s first Antibody based testing kit which takes less than 15 minutes to yield accurate result. Its cost is 500 rupees at present and the labs charge 4500 rupees for it. The new kit will provide the general population in India with adequate access to cost-effective testing.
Mr Rahman was permitted by the government authorities during the nation-wide lockdown to reopen the NuLife Consultants and Distributors Pvt. Ltd lab, where he developed India’s first ‘Anti-Body based Testing Kit’ to do finger-prick tests, which only takes nearly fifteen minutes to yield accurate results.
The testing kits launched in just a span of two weeks have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and soon the regular production will start, said Mr Rahman.
“We are confident of churning out one lakh kits a day to bring a faster and suitable solution for large-scale screenings,” he added.
Thanking the Government of Uttar Pradesh and ICMR for putting the trust in his team, Mr Rahman pointed out that a set of the testing kit will cost around 500-600 Rupees and the price is likely to further go down.
“The best part of this rapid and lesser time-taking kit is that it is economical to produce unlike the expensive RT-PCR testing kits,” he said.
Mr Rahman added that the anti-body based kit will ease the pressure on the pathology services struggling with COVID-19 detection in the Country.
“We are proud that an AMU alumnus has developed the much needed affordable testing kit when we see the surge in the number of coronavirus cases despite stringent measures are being implemented in the country. It is a major cause of worry,” said AMU Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor, while praising Mr Rahman for his invaluable contribution to India’s fight to curb COVID-19.
Prof Qayyum Husain, Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences who taught Mr Rahman when he was pursuing BSc and MSc in Biochemistry at AMU said that the launch of first anti-body based testing kit in India is an extra-ordinary achievement in the public interest.
AMU and its alumni are at the forefront of India’s fight against coronavirus. The Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of the University has already conducted 2500 free-of-costs tests.