Meet The Woman Who Delivered India's First Coronavirus Test Kit Just Before Delivering A Baby Girl

Covid-19 testing has been a big challenge for the country all this while due to several factors. There has been a global shortage in test kits, shortage in chemicals that are used in kits, limited imports of test kits among other things that led to this scarcity. However, with an Indian firm getting a commercial approval for its Covid-19 test kit, we now have the country's homegrown coronavirus test kit.

What is more special about this test kit is that its project was headed by a virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale. Read on to know all about the woman behind India's first testing kit.

Minal Dakhave Bhosale

Virologist, Minal Dakhave Bhosale is the woman who was leading her team who was working hard to create a testing kit for coronavirus. According to reports, it would have taken around 3-4 months for the team to develop the kit but they completed it in 6 weeks.

The kit was then presented for evaluation to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) on 18 March. This wasn't the only fight Minal Dakhave Bhosale had that day. Just after delivering the test kit project, she delivered her baby girl. Minal delivered a baby on 19th March and on the same day she submitted a working test kit - Patho Detect to Indian FDA and the drugs control authority CDSCO for commercial approval.

Had Pregnancy Complications

Minal started working on the project a few days after she was discharged from the hospital due to her pregnancy complications. In an interview, she said, “It was an emergency, so I took this on as a challenge. I had to serve my nation.”

Anand Mahindra appreciated her efforts on Twitter, he wrote, Ms. Bhosale, "you delivered not just the test kit and your baby, but you also delivered a ray of hope to the country. We stand and salute you..."

Ms. Bhosale, you delivered not just the test kit and your baby , but you also delivered a ray of hope to the country. We stand and salute you... https://t.co/iqQgQvBzg3

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 28, 2020

Chairperson and MD of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also praised her on her social media handle. She wrote, "Coronavirus: The woman behind India's first testing kit- makes us all so proud to see women leading the way Congrats Mylab."

Coronavirus: The woman behind India's first testing kit- makes us all so proud ⁦to see women leading the way Congrats Mylab https://t.co/W1WnC8Knrm

— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) March 28, 2020

10 Years Of Experience

Minal Dakhave Bhosale has an experience of 10 years in the field of diagnostics. She has expertise in the area of molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases, diagnostic product development, and R&D management functions. She also worked on the swine flu disease at NIV when it outbroke in the year 2009.

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Challenges During The Development Of Covid 19 Test Kit

Minal Dakhave Bhosale and her team had to start the development process on an urgent basis but there were a lot of challenges they faced. They faced challenges like getting the accurate design of the product, product validation for 100% sensitivity among others. However, her team overcame all the challenges and made a kit that was perfect. Minal Dakhave in an interview said, “If you carry out 10 tests on the same sample, all 10 results should be the same, and we achieved that. Our kit was perfect.”

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First Indian Firm To Get Full Approval

Minal Dakhave Bhosale works as the research and development chief of Mylab Discovery in Pune. Minal and her team managed to get full approval for their testing kit and made Mylab Discovery the first Indian firm to get an approval to make and sell coronavirus testing kits.

Coronavirus Test Kit For Rs 1200

The company has created a coronavirus kit that can test 100 samples and it costs Rs 1200. The cost is way less than Rs. 4500 per kit Indian government was paying for imported test kits. The firm can produce up to 2 lakh testing kits if required. The company has already shipped 150 testing kits to labs in Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Goa, and Bangalore.

The imported test kits India was using gave results in 6-7 hours but this first made-in-India testing kit delivers results in 2 and a half hours.

Minal Dakhave Bhosale's efforts to develop a testing kit to serve the country during this time of national crisis while she was facing personal challenges will always be remembered!