ISLAMABAD – The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has approved the first locally-manufacturing testing kit for COVID-19, a major scientific development that will reduce the cost to one-fourth of current price of kits.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry shared the news on Twitter on Friday and termed it a landmark.
The testing kit has been developed by the scientists at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Attaur Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB).
The minister appreciated the team and congratulated the university and “brilliant scientists” for achieving the landmark.
“You people have made us proud… this will bring significant cost reduction of Covid-19 tests and will also save huge import bill,” he wrote on Twitter.
Another landmark achieved…. DRAP has approved Pakistan first COVID testing kit, Congratulations to @Official_NUST and our brilliant scientists …you people have made us proud … this ll bring significant cost reduction of COVID tests also ll save huge import bill
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) June 12, 2020
The testing kit is developed in collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology China, DZIF Germany, Columbia University USA and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi.
NUST says, “The kits will soon be mass-produced by a selected pharmaceutical firm post DRAP approval for commercial production”.
