Vietnam’s three locally developed, affordable COVID-19 test kits
Teams | IMM and Viet A | HUST, Innogenex and Sunstar | VAST |
Technique | RT-PCR | RT-LAMP | RT-PCR |
Processing time | 60+ min | 15–30 min | 60+ min |
Affordability | US$19–25 | US$15 | Less than US$21 |
Key team members | Dr Su and Dr Son (IMM) | Dr Hoa (HUST), Mrs Ha (Innogenex) and Mrs Lien (Sunstar) | Dr Quyen and Dr Khang (VAST) |
Date research began | Late December 2019 | Late December 2019 | 7 February 2020 |
Timing of test kit approval (approver) | 4 March (Vietnam’s Ministry of Health) | 7 May (Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, of version 1); 25 May (Belgium, of version 2) | April (Vietnam’s Ministry of Health) |
Production status | Viet A has led the production and commercialisation and exporting of the test kits. | Sunstar has been working to commercialise and export the test kits to a number of countries. | Status unknown. |
HUST, Hanoi University of Science and Technology; IMM, Institute of Military Medicine; RT-PCR, reverse transcription PCR; VAST, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.