Tata group to launch India's first CRISPR Covid-19 test

An indigenous paper-strip Covid-19 diagnostic test, named after one of India’s most famous fictitious detectives on Saturday received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India for a commercial rollout.

Developed by scientists at the Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, one of the CSIR institutes, the test kit named FELUDA will be manufactured by a Tata group company in accordance with an agreement that Tata Sons signed with the CSIR institute in May.

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Feluda alias Prodosh C Mitter is a sleuth character created by legendary Satyajit Ray, who wrote 35 Feluda stories and made two films. But at the Delhi laboratory, FELUDA is actually an acronym - FNACS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay (FELUDA) – for an indigenous test for rapid diagnosis of Covid-19.

“It received regulatory approvals today from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for commercial launch, as per ICMR guidelines, meeting high-quality benchmarks with 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting the novel coronavirus,” the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research said in a statement.

The test uses an indigenously developed CRISPR gene-editing technology to detect the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Similar to the gold standard RT-PCR tests that are currently being used to screen the active infections, FELUDA too can do the same task but without the need for expensive machines. It also takes less time and is cheaper than RT-PCR, which makes it more amenable to widespread point-of-care testing.

A CRISPR related basic research for possible genome therapeutics led to new knowledge that could be converted into a new type of test for SARS-CoV2 and other genetic diagnostics. This shows the interconnectedness of scientific fields and technologies and highlights the need for broad investment into basic science,” IGIB director Anurag Agarwal told DH.

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Though FELUDA is a paper-strip test, it’s not as easy as the pregnancy test as a basic laboratory set up is needed. It works with both saliva and blood samples, but the scientists prefer saliva as it’s easy to collect. The indigenous test identifies the unique genetic material of the novel coronavirus to give a positive result.

In the laboratory setting, one test used to cost Rs 500-600, which would change at the commercial level. The test takes about an hour out of which nearly 45 minutes are needed for sample preparations.

The test was originally developed for sickle cell disease. When the pandemic struck, the scientists decided to repurpose the technology for Covid-19.