This story is from July 8, 2020

Pune: Mylabs launches portable lab for faster testing

Molecular test maker Mylabs Discovery Solutions has launched a new product that can reduce manpower and space requirements — and give results faster — for Covid-19 test. the company said the new machine can process 32 tests per hour.
Pune: Mylabs launches portable lab for faster testing
Adar Poonawalla, CEO Serum Institute of India
PUNE: Molecular test maker Mylabs Discovery Solutions has launched a new product that can reduce manpower and space requirements — and give results faster — for Covid-19 test. the company said the new machine can process 32 tests per hour.
Mylabs said that the new kit can reduce the requirement of 4-5 technicians and 800-1,000 sqft space for a molecular test lab, and also help with greater precision testing.

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The Pune-based company — in which Serum Institute of India’s Adar Poonawalla has invested over Rs 100 crore so far — said it producing less than half of its capacity of 2 million tests a week as “there is no demand”.
Mylabs said the new machine, which can process 32 tests in a single hour, is priced at Rs 40 lakh. The company and Poonawalla also appealed to the government to allow exports of the tests. Mylabs director Sujit Jain said the company has received many enquiries from European nations and Gulf cooperation countries.
In India, the company sells each test at less than Rs 1,000 per kit to government and private labs, which then decide their own pricing subject to caps imposed by respective state governments. Mylabs managing director Hasmukh Rawal said they were also in the process of making rapid
antigen test kits. “However, a negative result requires further confirmation with the RT-PCR test, which remains the gold standard,” he said.
Mylabs has provided about 20% of the 10 million tests conducted in India so far.
Poonawalla said that the government must reconsider its strategy for testing and allow more tests for people who want it. “More testing is the only way to prevent the spread till a vaccine is developed,” Poonawalla said, adding, “Now people can get a test only if there is a prescription. So many asymptomatic cases are getting missed.”
He said SII will bring out a vaccine only after thoroughly checking its efficacy and following the three-stage trials. “It is at least six months away,” he said.
Poonawalla said the government is, perhaps, not testing to keep the numbers low. “Harm is not in testing and cases going up. If the numbers go up and there is no risk, there is no problem. Harm is in people dying and it happening because the virus is not being detected early,” he added.
Serum Institute of India’s founder Cyrus Poonawalla said testing and isolation was the only way forward, otherwise there was a risk of mass contamination.
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