Costa Rica to develop its own COVID-19 tests

By IDeas trademarks & patents

A study carried out in Costa Rica seeks to adapt protocols to replace parts or stages of commercial kits that diagnose the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. By employing inputs and reagents with lower demand, and with validated performance with clinical samples, Costa Rica intents to have its own produced tests available, which will eliminate dependence on the international market, that currently has a high demand for these implements.

“Costa Rica possesses human talent with great capabilities; if we work together, we will have more and better options to overcome this pandemic, not only in medical terms, but also in terms of scientific, social and economic development. With solidarity and united, we can transform this crisis into an opportunity,” said President Carlos Alvarado.

The first results are expected in four weeks, and new strategic partners are being sought for the validation phase with patient samples, which would take an additional two weeks. The task force is made up of public institutions and private companies with Costa Rican experts in molecular biology, physiology, virology, microbiology, genetics, and biotechnology, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“As an analogy, if we were making soup, the commercial products we currently use are instant soups for example and we do not know their composition. The alternative protocol version is to make the soup from scratch: water, vegetables, salt, meat, seasoning, our own recipe that will allow us to increase the coverage of screening and diagnosis in extreme scenarios, so I am very grateful for the proactive and valuable work of this group of Costa Rican scientists”, explained Daniel Salas, Minister of Health.