This article throws some light on the gov’s dysfunctional kit procurement program. Mumbai is facing a shortage of RT PCR kits after the lowest bidder in a recent 12.5 lakh kit order (GCC Biotech) supplied faulty kits with high false negatives. Similarly last month POCT Services was banned after they won a tender for 12.6 lakh kits @ Rs. 78/kit (!!!) and then later refused to supply the kits. Another interesting data point for Maharashtra is that 50,000 out of the 90,000 tests per day are RT PCR tests with the rest being anti gen tests.
This kind of crazy bidding at Rs. 78 is probably why 3B is avoiding the gov procurement channel and focusing on private labs where there is enough demand and sensible pricing.
This also suggests that the quality of 3B’s tests is high to be accepted by the private labs without any issues so far.
I saw an interesting video recently from Tata Medical Center (Kolkata) where a senior doctor compared various RT PCR test kits being used in their lab - Altona, 3B BlackBio, MyLab. TRUPCR is one of the kits discussed and this is a good watch for anyone who wants to understand RT PCR testing in detail. Note that the video talks about TRUPCR v1.0 (2 tube assay) after which 3B launched v2.0 which is the single tube assay (the presenter mentioned this as well).
My takeaways as a layman -
- 1 tube assay is always superior - less time and less manpower required. Number of tubes is directly proportional to the amount of time taken to set up the assay - i.e. 3 tube = 3x the time required vs 1 tube. Someone using the Mylab kit will run 100 tests in the same time it takes to run 300 tests on Altona / 3B. Each tube is set up manually which compounds the risk of lab error in multi-tube tests as well.
- Tests targeting the RdRP gene have the highest analytical sensitivity
- 3B test has the lowest turnaround time of 1.4 hours
- Their lab is using these 3 kits for their technical superiority and price. Need to use more than 1 vendor because availability of kits is sometimes difficult.
- Seegene kit (the one used widely in Korea) is good but requires a RT platform which is not widely available in India. Selection of kit depends on RT instrument available in the lab.