Indian Council of Medical Research: Cost effective and indigenous tool for TB is expected to be possible in a year.

ICMR’S Director General Soumya Swaminathan told to PTI"A Bengaluru-based company has made the new diagnostic tool which is going to be more point-of-care and we hope it will be as good as GeneXpert test,"

"If our evaluation shows positive result, then it may replace GeneXpert. The idea is to reduce the cost and have an indigenous diagnostic tool," Swaminathan said.
Gene Xpert is a well known test for revealing Tuberculosis that provides result in a couple of hours

Soumya said, "The evaluation will be over in the next three months. If it is found to be good, production will be scaled up. That may take another six months or so. It maybe a year before the diagnostic tool is available,"

She also said, “ICMR is focused on research for better treatment strategies and diagnostics and is also working to speed up rapid diagnostics for TB,”

"But implementation of the programme is also equally important," she said.
ICMR is also working on developing vaccines for major infections, malaria and HIV. The phase-one trials for malaria vaccine should start very soon as the necessary approvals have been obtained, Swaminathan said.
It has applied for regulatory clearance to start the phase-three trial for a new vaccine (a recombinant VCG vaccine) for TB, Swaminathan added.