Vietnamese-made nCoV quick test kit completed

HÀ NỘI — The Institute of Biotechnology under the Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology yesterday announced it had completed the development of test kits for the emergent strain of coronavirus that provide results in just 80 minutes.

Compared to the test kits being used by the World Health Organisation, the Vietnamese products provide similar results, said Đồng Văn Quyền, Deputy Director of the Institute.

This kit development is based on RT-LAMP (Reverse Transcription-Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) technology, and a nucleic acid isothermal amplification technique specifically used to detect the RNA of pathogenic viruses.

The kit has been tested at the Institute of Biotechnology and was confirmed by the Military Preventive Medicine Institute under the Ministry of Defense to have similar sensitivity and specificity to the real-time RT-PCR method used by the WHO.

Quyền said the research group expected to put the kit on clinical trial soon. Once approved by the Ministry of Health, the Institute of Biotechnology could provide up to thousands of test kits.

The research group worked day and night for four weeks to complete the kit. Without revealing an exact figure, Quyền said the price for the kid would be lower than those imported.

Chu Hoàng Hà, director of the institute, said assessments by other independent institutes and the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology were also needed before the test kit was put in use. — VNS