Serum Institute Invests in MyLab, India May See 13x Increase in COVID-19 Testing Kits

The partnership is aimed at increasing the production capacity of COVID-19 testing kits as well as growing the MyLab’s capacity in molecular diagnostic solutions.

Mumbai| MyLab Laboratories, the Pune-based diagnostic equipment company, which received the approval from the Indian government for manufacturing COVID-19 testing kits to ramp up the testing rate in India, has now received an undisclosed amount of investment from Serum Institute of India, world’s largest producer of vaccines by the count of doses taken.

The partnership is aimed at increasing the production capacity of COVID-19 testing kits as well as growing the MyLab’s capacity in molecular diagnostic solutions. According to the Firm’s statement reported by News18, MyLab will ramp up its production capacity of 1.5 lac test units per week to 20 Lac testing units per week within the next few weeks, a whopping increase of 13 times in current production capacity.

Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, informed that with an increase in production rate, the shortage of COVID-19 testing kits in India will end in a month or two. Earlier this week, MyLab had announced it had received the approval from the Indian government to produce and supply COVID-19 testing kits that will help detect more coronavirus cases in India and aid the authorities in understanding the stage of the spread of across the country. The testing kits have been priced at Rs. 1200, way less than the initial price of Rs. 4500 they had come up with.

In an interview with news channel News18, Dr. Gautam Wankhede, director of medical affairs at MyLab Laboratories, informed that the development of the test kits took 6 weeks despite the multiple challenges such as limited availability of samples and high specificity required in the testing process.

He further added, “If you look at the adjunct industries, for example, pharmaceuticals and biologics, the presence of world-class companies, in both manufacturing and development is evident in the conducive ecosystem. A good example is of Biocon.”