US CDC to assess COVID-19 testing kits developed by Gonoshasthaya
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States has urged Gonoshasthaya Kendra to provide it with 800 GK-developed kits for testing COVID-19.
Gonoshasthaya founder Zafrullah Chowdhury told New Age on Wednesday that the US centers’ country director Michael S Friedman wrote to him in this regard as they were willing to evaluate the kits.
‘We are hopeful of providing them with the kits on Thursday,’ he said.
Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Limited, a concern of Gonoshasthaya Kendra in Bangladesh, developed the kit to test COVID-19.
Gonoshasthaya said in March that the kit would cost about Tk 200 and could be marketed soon if the Directorate General of Drug Administration approved it.
Related Coverage:
- › The Gonoshasthya Kendra’s Corona Test Kit. Cui Bono?
- › Government has no plan to allow rapid kits: DGDA
- › DGDA declines to accept samples
- › Gonoshasthaya unveils kit
- › Gonoshasthaya postpones COVID-19 detecting kit handover
Drug Administration in March allowed Gonoshasthaya to import raw materials to produce the kits for trial.
Gonoshasthaya got permission for collecting samples for trial of the kit from the Directorate General of Health Services after intervention of the Prime Minister’s Office on April 22, Zafrullah Chowdhury said.
Zafrullah Chowdhury unveiled its kit on Saturday amid the absence of representatives of the Drug Administration.
Zafrullah said that they had plans to hand over samples to Drug Administration on Sunday for approval, but they did not appear at the meeting.
US CDC representative and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University officials were present at the unveiling programme at Gonoshasthaya Kendra Hospital at Dhanmondi.
On Sunday, Bijon Kumar Sil, the scientist who developed the rapid test kit, led a team of three to the Drug Administration directorate general, but the officials refused to accept the kit.
Zafrullah at a press conference on Sunday said that the Drug Administration appeared ‘indifferent and non-cooperative to efforts of developing the kits.’
On the next day, Drug Administration director general Mahbubur Rahman said at a press conference that the government does not have any plan to allow rapid testing kits for the novel coronavirus infection.
Zafrullah said that the kit’s internal validation has been completed and the external validation was required for getting registration of the kits.
‘But Drug Administration is not allowing anyone in our country to test its efficacy,’ he said.
‘I thank the US CDC for their interest in our kits,’ he said.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
