The Tata Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) COVID-19 test whose commercial name in Feluda, has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India. On Saturday, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said during its launch that it has been approved. CSIR said in a statement that the test uses an indigenously developed, cutting-edge CRISPR technology for identifying the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Tata CRISPR test can achieve accuracy levels of traditional RT-PCR tests with faster reversal time with less expensive equipment and easy usage. To detect diseases, CRISPR is used as a genome editing technology. This technology is developed by CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology).

The statement said that the Tata CRISPR test, which is powered by CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology) FELUDA has received regulatory approvals today from DCGI for its commercial launch, according to the ICMR guidelines. It meets high quality standards with 96 per cent sensitivity and 98 per cent specificity for detection of novel coronavirus.

The Tata CRISPR test is the worlds 1st diagnostic test to organize a specifically adapted Cas9 protein to effectively identify the virus that causes COVID-19. Also, CRISPR is a futuristic technology that can be configured for identifying several other pathogens in future.

The statement further added that the Tata Group has been working closely with CSIR-IGIB and ICMR to make a high-quality test, which will help the nation upgrade COVID-19 testing rapidly and economically. It will be a Made in India product that is safe, affordable, reliable and accessible.

CEO of TATA Medical and Diagnostics Ltd, Girish Krishnamurthy, said that the approval for the Tata CRISPR test for COVID-19 will increase the countrys efforts to combat the global pandemic. The commerciali sation of Tata CRISPR test reproduces the incredible R&D talent in the country that can work together to transform Indias contributions to the international healthcare and scientific research world.

Director of CSIR-IGIB, Anurag Agrawal, said that the work started by CSIR under the sickle cell mission for genome diagnostics along with the therapeutics has led to new knowledge. This was connected to developing a new diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2.

He highlighted that this new launch shows the interrelation of scientific knowledge and technology with the modernization of the young research team that is led by Debojyoti Chakraborty and Souvik Maiti.

Source: ET Healthworld