Homegrown test kit to seek approval next week

FT ONLINE

The technical glitches that had created problems in the production of Covid-19 testing kits at the Gonoshasthaya Kendra pharmaceutical factory in Savar have been addressed, and the healthcare organisation plans to hand over the kits to the government for approval for mass production by April 23.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra was earlier scheduled to hand over the kits to the Directorate General of Drug Administration on April 11, but it was not possible due to technical glitches in the machine caused by high electric voltage.

"We have fine-tuned the machine now. Besides, the government today assured us of providing a special electric line to ensure that there is no electric problem at all," said Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder and trustee of Gonoshasthaya Kendra yesterday.

Once the Directorate General of Drug Administration approves the testing kits, Gonoshasthaya Kendra can go for mass production, he said.

A team of Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech, a sister concern of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, 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.