Indigenous HIV detection kit to hit markets soon

Indigenous HIV detection kit to hit markets soon
SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 12: The first indigenously developed AIDS/HIV detection kit will hit the market soon, at half the price of foreign kits.

Developed from the HIV strain prevalent in India, the indigenous kit is expected to have an edge over the foreign kits, especially in the South-east Asian market.

The technology which was developed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has been perfected further by and packaged for marketing by a leading pharmaceutical company.

The kit will have strips and appearance-specific bands on them will decide the status of the blood or sera sample subjected to evaluation.

Releasing the kit for commercial production, Minister of State for Science and Technology Bachi Singh Rawat said the kit is expected to have major share in the global market.

It will be priced between Rs 500 and Rs 600 as against the foreign-made kit which comes for $ 25-30 per kit.

Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister C.P. Thakur said the kits for identification of individual carriers of HIV are central to public health strategies to combat the disease and they play a significant role in the AIDS prevention programme.

He cautioned that India is the second largest in HIV positive population, with adults alone totalling between three and five million.