Public-Private Initiative to Increase COVID-19 Testing Capacity by Using Promega Maxwell Instrument in India

This blog is written by guest blogger, Dr Rajnish Bharti, General Manager of Promega Biotech India Pvt Ltd.

As COVID-19 cases accelerate, the country of India has decided to scale up testing capacity to 100,000 tests per day in the coming days.

In a major step to counter the coronavirus crisis, Promega India is supporting government agencies through our automated instruments. The Maxwell® RSC instrument is a compact, automated RNA extraction platform that processes up to 48 samples simultaneously in less than 35 minutes. The automated Promega solution allows laboratories to process up to 400 samples in a typical 8-hour shift.

Scientists in India train on the Maxwell RSC 48
Forensic Science Laboratory-Jaipur and SMS Hospital Jaipur join hands together to use Promega Maxwell® RSC 48 to Increase COVID-19 Testing capacity.

COVID-19 pandemic situation labs are experiencing unprecedented need for reagents to perform viral testing. This urgency has led many scientists and communities to make new connections and build creative, collaborative solutions. Forensic Science Laboratory-Jaipur  has recently procured two Maxwell® RSC 48 Instruments from Promega for extracting DNA from casework samples. The government firm has now decided to support SMS Hospital Jaipur in this pandemic situation by providing the procured instruments to the renowned hospital for RNA extraction for COVID-19 testing. Promega Service Engineer Naveen Yadav and Promega Application Scientist Dr. Manas Ranjan Sahoo successfully conducted the onsite training at FSL Jaipur during lockdown time. The local channel partner, Mr. Suchit Sogani, Promoter of GC Life Science, initiated the partnership and  helped the teams to successfully complete the entire process. 

The Promega team supported COVID-19 testing with its Maxwell unit at AIIMS Rishikesh, conducting a virtual training so the labs can use the instrument in this pandemic. Promega also offered a Maxwell unit at Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) Mumbai. Mumbai has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India so far. Promega Maxwell units are also used by several other labs across India as for COVID-19 testing.

“We are grateful that leading communities across the globe are supporting each other during this COVID-19 pandemic and that Promega products can be of use to combat against the difficult times the world is facing. Promega began scaling up reagent manufacturing in January to address global needs and has maintained accelerated production since then. Operations teams continue to work on ways to expand production to further meet unprecedented demand.”

Dr Rajnish Bharti, General Manager Promega Biotech India Pvt Ltd.

Promega manufactures reagents used for COVID-19 testing. The company’s components currently support approximately 28 COVID-19 test kits around the world, and Promega provides RNA extraction reagents for more than 500 clinical labs globally.

Promega remains committed to supporting scientists around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Rajnish Bharti is the General Manager of India Branch at Promega Biotech India Pvt Ltd. In this role, Rajnish oversees the sales and marketing teams, developing the strategic vision for the India Branch. Branch provides a direct link to the Indian research, development, and business community, allowing us to support scientific initiatives and innovations.

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Promega
Promega products are used by life scientists who are asking fundamental questions about biological processes and by scientists who are applying scientific knowledge to diagnose and treat diseases, discover new therapeutics, and use genetics and DNA testing for human identification. Originally, founded in 1978 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Promega has branches in 16 countries and more than 50 global distributors serving 100 countries.

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