Indonesia Will Produce 50 Thousand Rapid Test Equipment By The End Of May

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The government continues to strive to stop the spread of the corona virus or COVID-19 in the country. Currently, one of the steps being taken is developing a medical test kit to detect the spread of the virus.

Minister of Research and Technology (Menristek) Bambang Brodjonegoro said that currently the government is preparing 10 thousand test kits in the form of rapid tests which will be ready this week, May 8.

Bambang explained that later this rapid test will be used to detect synthesis-based Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and Immunoglobulin M (IgM).

"This is a collaboration between UGM, UNAIR and Hepatika. If these 10 thousand have been validated, it is estimated that in June 2020 50 thousand test kits will be produced for mass testing," he said Tuesday, May 5.

He said this in a virtual joint meeting with Commissions VI, VII, and IX DPR RI, Minister of Industry, Minister of BUMN RI, and Minister of Health RI as well as a Joint Hearing Meeting with the Head of LIPI, Head of BPPT, Head of LAPAN, Head of BPOM, and Director of the Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology.

In addition, Bambang continued, the government is also developing a rapid test to detect biosensor-based antigens. This innovation is a collaboration between ITB and Unpad and RDT for the detection of IgG / IgM based on spike and nucleocapside genes.

"The two of them entered the validation test at the end of July and the results of the test kit could be produced," he said.

According to Bambang, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) is currently developing a rapid test which will have the same advantage as the PCR test. The technology developed for this rapid test is based on LAMP Turbidimetry and Colorimetry.

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"This has the advantage of being equivalent to PCR with a waiting time to see the results of one hour. One of the advantages, the reagent needed with PCR, and hopefully it will make it easier for reagents that are not PCR, with the target to be completed in July," he said.

Then, Bambang explained, for the development of PCR tests, the government has prepared 10 boxes each containing 25 test kits for validation and registration which will be ready to produce at the end of this month as many as 50 thousand test kits.

"Of course, the PCR test kit design uses bioinformatics analysis with viruses that are the closest specification to local transmission or viruses in Indonesia," he said.

The focus of BPPT

On the same occasion, Head of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) Hammam Riza said that Indonesia needs an ecosystem to emphasize that in order to anticipate the spread, accelerating technological innovation on testing must be carried out. Tracing ability is needed, so that later it can be followed up with isolation and treatment.

"At BPPT we focus on completing the test kit, namely the RT-qPCR and also the rapid diagnostic test kit accompanied by the ability of a mobile laboratory which has Bio Safety Level 2 Enhanced (BSL-2E) level to be able to carry out rapid tests," he said.

Hammam said, in this ecosystem cycle BPPT completes all the necessary processes, from prototype creation, certification, clinical testing, production permit, distribution permit (EUA), and industrial production.

Currently, said Hammam, the government is still waiting for two more raw materials to come in to meet the production of 50 thousand test kits by the end of May.