Turkey starts work to produce COVID-19 test kits

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish technology company NANOBIZ on Thursday announced it started working on producing country’s indigenous test kits for the diagnosis of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

"With high precision molecular test kits, COVID-19 diagnosis can be made rapidly on the field," said a statement by the company.

The company has been collaborating with Turkey's Defense Industries Presidency (SSB) with Technology and Health ministries, conducting R&D studies together.

Devices that will enable the use of the kits to be used in first-level health facilities, mobile test stations, airports, border crossings and military platforms and units are also being developed.

The research team accelerated the adaptation studies of the Biosens-Hybrid, a device that was developed for use in the defense industry, in the coronavirus studies at the bedside, and with high accuracy to make a molecular diagnosis.

In addition to these studies, along with other researchers from different institutions and organizations, the team reached the final stage of developing rapid antibody tests in the card test format.

"These molecular diagnostic kits were able to produce high accuracy results in 60 minutes from patient samples without requiring long and laborious sample preparation," said Prof. Huseyin Avni Oktem at Middle East Technical University (METU).

Oktem, the head of the research team, said the infrastructures in METU can also be used for the production of kits.

Necessary plans have been made for mass production of testing kits in the future, he added.