The product, which has been developed over a period of six months, is currently under multi-centre evaluation and awaitsapproval from the Indian Council of Medical Research and Drug Controller-General of India.G Ilavazhagan, DRDO’s Director in-charge of Life Sciences, told Deccan Herald:â??“More than 1,000 clinical samples were evaluated and compared with samples tested by the real-time polymerised chain reaction (RTPCRâ??) systemdeveloped by the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) of WHO. Our system has proved itself.”The system is able to do the tests for only Rs 1,500 as opposed to around Rs 10,000 in CDC-developed kits. It will also work efficiently in villagesas it does not use sophisticated instrument and can work without electricity. Before hitting the market, the DRDO has transferred the technology to two companies –– Bigtec, Bangalore and Ras Life Sciences, Hyderabad.“When the CDC-developed kit and our kit tested a few hundred samples, the results tallied,” a well-placed source in DRDO said, adding that their kit had, in fact, diagnosed some samples missed by the CDC kit.Ilavazhagan said the system was based on isothermal loop mediated amplification (Lamp) technique. [More]Tags:uttar pradeshaccidentballia districttractor