Diamed Enterprise, a provider of life science and diagnostics products, rolled out a locally-developed African Swine Fever test kit in the Calabarzon region.
This is part of the agreement signed between GenAmplify Technologies Inc., the manufacturer and Diamed Enterprise.
GTI is a subsidiary of Manila Healthtek, the country’s first and only biotech company in diagnostics, which developed the molecular-based testing platform called GenAmplify ASF PCR Detection Kit.
“The GenAmplify ASF PCR detection kit delivers the same quality of performance as international brands. It is user-friendly, and is very convenient since it allows the use of different types of samples,” said Dr. Lorenzo Arellano of Diamed.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the test kits last year. The veterinary laboratory division of the Bureau of the Animal Industry also validated the product and found it to be 100-percent sensitive and 100-percent specific. This means that the testing kit can detect true positive which reflects on its sensitivity and can also detect true negative, a matter that reflects on specificity.
It has also undergone field implementation. This was done in partnership with animal diseases diagnostic laboratories to validate the product’s performance and understand the gaps before its actual roll-out in the market.
Diamed Enterprise’s laboratory in Los Banos was one of the laboratories that participated in the field implementation.
“We are open also for other distributors to cover other areas, most especially those areas with reported outbreaks. A wider distribution network will eventually help us further lower the cost of testing to make it more accessible for hog farmers,” said GTI vice president for sales and marketing Maricar Ocampo.
MTek director of research and development at the animal health division Dr. Ernesto Balolong Jr. said that aside from lower cost and accessibility, the product also adds another important feature.
“Since the product is locally-developed, the manufacturers can readily provide technical assistance to laboratories should there be problems, versus imported test kits,” Balolong said.