A Covid-19 test named Feluda, developed by scientists from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology) in Delhi, along with the Tata Group, has been approved for commercial launch by the Drugs Controller General of India. The result of the test will be available in two hours. “The Tata CRISPR test is the world’s first diagnostic test to deploy a specially adapted Cas9 protein to successfully detect the virus causing Covid-19,” said a statement.
When the pandemic began, the IGIB team of Debojyoti Chakraborty and Souvik Maiti was working on developing a genome-based diagnostic tool for sickle cell. They took less than 100 days to “harness’’ their work to develop Feluda, said IGIB director Dr Anurag Agrawal. A press release issued by the ministry of science and technology said the test has 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting the novel coronavirus. A CSIR officials said that it is similar to a pregnancy test, containing a strip of paper that changes colour on detection of the virus in the sample.
“This marks a significant achievement for the Indian scientific community, moving from R&D to a high-accuracy, scalable and reliable test in less than 100 days,’’ said the statement. The test can at a later date be reconfigured to detect other pathogens as well. Official sources said, “The test is a great innovation as it would take a short while for the results, and has been approved after thorough validation and testing.”
The cost of the test is estimated to be under Rs 600, sources said, but this could not be verified. Globally, the US drug regulator in May had granted emergency-use approval for a new Coronavirus test to take advantage of gene-editing technology CRISPR.
