Feluda Is Back! This Time To Detect Covid-19 Infection; Tata CRISPR's Test Gets DCGI Approval For Commercial Launch

'Feluda', the Tata CRISPR Covid-19 test, has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research announced on Saturday.For the uninitiated, the name 'Feluda' has perhaps been chosen as the name also belongs to a popular Indian detective character on the lines of Sherlock Holmes, in stories written by legendary writer-filmmaker Satyajit Ray. "The Tata CRISPR test, powered by CSIR-IGIB FELUDA, received regulatory approvals today from DCGI for commercial launch, as per ICMR guidelines, meeting high-quality benchmarks with 96 percent sensitivity and 98 percent specificity for detecting novel coronavirus," the statement said. The Tata CRISPR test is the world's first diagnostic test to deploy a specially adapted Cas9 protein to successfully detect the virus causing COVID-19, it stated. Taking about the launch, Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO, TATA Medical and Diagnostics Ltd said, "The approval for the Tata CRISPR test for Covid-19 will give a boost to the country's efforts in fighting the global pandemic. "The commercialization of the Tata CRISPR test reflects the tremendous R&D talent in the country which can collaborate to transform India's contributions to the global healthcare and scientific research world," he said.