Following the news that molecular diagnostic company Mylab has received approval for its Covid-19 diagnostic test kits from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI);

Rohit Anand, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“India so far has followed a restrictive testing protocol for suspected Covid-19 cases and the Indian government has been criticized for its approach. With a limited number of test kits available, the country has been primarily testing patients with a travel history and is currently ranked lowest in terms of testing per million population. Mylab’s Covid-19 diagnostic test kits, called reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, have now been validated by the National Institue of Virology.     

“GlobalData’s research reveals that the Indian in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) market, which accounted for more than 21% of the Asia-Pacific IVD market in 2019, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.5% through 2025.

“With the country under complete lockdown and an expected surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, a large number of diagnostic test kits are needed. The supply of test kits is already impacted and key countries supplying these kits may ban exports in anticipation of an increase in domestic demand.

“Mylab claims that its diagnostic kits can provide test results much quicker as compared to the current lab-based testing method and can study 200 to 1,000 samples based on the lab size. In addition, these test kits are expected to be available at a reasonable price. With India moving to Stage 3 or community transmission of the Covid-19 outbreak, this step will help the government to track more suspected cases and will allow putting a brake on the spread of this deadly disease more effectively.”