Japanese Startup Develops COVID-19 Test Method, As Accurate As PCR But Only Takes 2 Minutes

Illustration. (Unsplash / Mufid Majnun)

JAKARTA - A Japanese biotechnology startup, in collaboration with a well-known university, announced that it is developing a new COVID-19 test method.

Interestingly, this COVID-19 test method was developed to detect coronavirus infection in just two minutes, with a high degree of accuracy.

It is Mytech Inc., a startup based in Kobe, West Japan, which developed this method together with Ryukyus University, which is able to make the coronavirus visible through a microscope using fluorescent markers.

With a test time of only two minutes, a coronavirus infection can be detected with the accuracy of that of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kit.

Widely used to detect coronavirus infection, PCR or polymerase chain reaction tests take several hours to amplify a DNA sample to the amount required for genetic analysis. Meanwhile, the antigen test, another popular COVID-19 test, is not as accurate as the PCR method.

In the clinical trials conducted, this method achieved an accuracy of between 72 and 94 percent, which matched the results of tests carried out with the PCR test kit.

The company hopes to commercialize this automated testing device, at the opening of the Tokyo Olympics in July.

"The method is fast and simple. It will be very effective for diagnosing many people at once", said Takeshi Kinjo, assistant professor at the university, reported Kyodonews.