C-CAMP InDx announces mass-scale availability of diagnostic kits and online MarketPlace for the same

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms or C-CAMP, on behalf of Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster, has enabled mass-scale availability of indigenously developed, ICMR/DCGI-approved COVID-19 diagnostic kits for government and private diagnostic labs that are facing any shortfall due to the increased number of cases across India.

The initiative is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, Indigenization of Diagnostics program or CCAMP-InDx in conjunction with the National Biomedical Resources Consortium (N-BRIC).

These kits are now directly accessible through the CCAMP-InDx deployed marketplace platform, which was designed pro-bono by TCS and connects kit buyers immediately with manufacturers.

The CCAMP-InDx Marketplace is up and running, and companies registered on the portal can register their products, and negotiate with suppliers.

“Over 200+ products have been registered on the portal, so far and CCAMP is inviting individual diagnostic labs, diagnostic lab chains, hospitals or pharma companies to join the portal,” a press release stated.

As reports of delayed diagnosis due to overburdening of labs come in, hospitals are facing a huge challenge due to cases arriving late with complications already setting in.

The need of the hour has aggressively ramped up testing so that symptoms can be controlled once under the healthcare regime. To achieve this, greater availability and accessibility to approved diagnostic kits is important. 

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The current waiting time for the manufacturing and assembly of kits is about 8 weeks.

CCAMP-InDx and NBRIC have been critical in indigenising the kit development process and creating a pool of globally competitive, Made in India diagnostic kit manufacturers with potentially faster turnaround times.

“InDx has about 115 registered MSMEs in the COVID molecular diagnostics space. More than 30 of them manufacture ICMR approved/validated and DCGI approved kits. The combined capacity of manufacture of this group of companies can jointly address the present demand of approximately one million tests a day,” it was shared in the release.

The kit developers are working with CCAMp-InDx for indigenisation, scale-up, quality and commercialisation.

For many of them, InDx has been instrumental in validation and quality control studies to achieve global and Indian regulatory approvals including ICMR and CDSCO.

Not only kits, but the availability of sufficient kit reagents and components is also equally important. The consortium’s comprehensive molecular diagnostics portfolio includes over 10 RAPID Antigen test kit manufacturers who can supply over 500,000-700,000 tests per day (immediately) with additional capacity for Viral Transport Media, Molecular Transport Media, Swabs, RNA extraction kits and Antibody tests for measuring vaccine efficacy. 

As the country reels under this vicious Second Wave, CCAMP-InDx and N-BRIC can lead the fightback with resources for vastly improved availability of diagnostic kits and enhanced connectivity between the public healthcare system and Indian kit developers. The Indx-Market Place is now open for immediate business.

Both gold standard RT-PCR and antigen/antibody for serological surveys are available under these programs while the Marketplace is now open for access by all potential kit buyers.