What is 'Dipcovan', the COVID-19 antibody detection test kit by DRDO?

New Delhi: India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a Covid-19 antibody detection kit. The DIPCOVAN kit can detect both spike as well as nucleocapsid proteins of Coronavirus with a high sensitivity of 97%. It has been approved by Indian Council of Medical Research, and has been developed by the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences lab of DRDO in association with Delhi’s Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt Ltd.

“DIPCOVAN is intended for the qualitative detection of IgG antibodies in human serum or plasma, targeting SARS-CoV-2 related antigens. It offers a significantly faster turnaround time of just 75 minutes to conduct the test without any cross reactivity with other diseases. The kit has a shelf life of 18 months,” a statement released by DRDO said on Friday.

It added that the indigenously developed kit was tested on more than 1,000 patient samples at various Covid hospitals of Delhi and three batches of the product had received validation last year too.

With regard to manufacturing and sale of the product, DRDO said that it has received a regulatory approval from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) as well as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

“Vanguard Diagnostics will be commercially launching the product during the first week of June with an immediate available stock of 100 kits. These kits can help in conducting 10,000 tests with each test expected to be available at ₹75. The company would later be producing 500 kits a month,” a DRDO statement said.