The Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK) has announced to produce 100,000 coronavirus test kits per month under their own capacity.
They made the announcement after receiving the reagents, or raw materials, for developing the testing kit – Rapid Dot Blot – on Monday.
The organization also expressed plans to hand over the testing kits to government authorities by April 11.
“I have called the health secretary and wrote to different departments of the government to provide us with blood samples of Covid-19 positive patients,” Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury told Dhaka Tribune.
"We need at least five CC blood samples from five Covid-19 positive patients each for the final trial of our kit," he added.
Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Limited has been developing the testing kit.
"If the government helps us or asks any commercial bank to sanction a loan of Tk50 crore at 9% interest rate, then we will be able to produce two million kits per month as per our country’s need," he added.
He also thanked the Bangladesh Embassy in China and the chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR) for their cooperation.
“After the final trials, Gonoshasthaya will hand over the kits to the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA). As per law, the DGDA will send it to World Health Organization (WHO) for approval,” sources at the Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Ltd said.
“Gonoshasthaya can go for mass production after receiving the WHO approval.”
Last week, DGDA Director General Major General Md Mahbubur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune: "The government already has the Real Time Testing Kit, which is more reliable then the Rapid Test Kit being developed by Gonoshasthaya. In some cases, Rapid Test Kit produces misreading. But, we encourage this scientific research activity."
Earlier in March, the DGDA director general said they have to test the kit through a third party laboratory, such as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
“Also considering the serious public health concerns, we will inspect the lab where the kit will be developed,” he added.
After a two-month research, Prof Dr Bijon Kumar Sil, head of the Department of Microbiology at the Gono Bishwabidyalay, and his four associates Dr Nihad Adnan, Dr Mohd Raed Jamiruddin, Dr Firoze Ahmed, and Dr Muhibullah Khandaker developed the testing kit.
The team received the government green signal two weeks ago to import the raw materials for producing the testing kits.
Researchers say the Rapid Dot Blot can detect coronavirus infection in 15 minutes and is expected to cost around Tk300-350 each.
