Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has been contributing significantly against the Covid-19 pandemic. DRDO has now developed DIPCOVAN, an Antibody-based detection kit. The kit is intended for the qualitative detection of IgG antibodies.
DIPCOVAN kit can detect both spike as well as Nucleoplasid (S&N) proteins of the SARS-COV-2 virus. The kit can do so with a high sensitivity of 97% and specificity of 99%. The kit has been developed indigenously by scientists.
The test can be conducted in just 75 minutes without any cross-reactivity with other diseases. The DIPCOVAN kit has a shelf life of 18 months. The kit will be launched commercially by the first week of June 2021. It is expected to be available at 75₹ per test.
Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), a laboratory under DRDO has developed the Antibody detection kit. The kit has been developed in association with New Delhi based Vanguard Diagnostics Private Limited.
Extensive validation of more than 1,000 samples at various Covid designated hospitals in Delhi has been done, making it extremely specific for India. The availability of the kit at launch is expected to be 100 kits (10,000 tests).