Organisation:
Xcellence in Bioinnovations and Technologies (xBITS) Pvt. Ltd.
Location:
Hyderabad
Problem:
UTI accounts for over 10 million doctor’s office visits/year, at a cost of over $1 billion. A large share of expense and misuse of antimicrobials comes from a 24-72 hour long wait for the sample to be cultured and tested for antibiotic sensitivity (AST). This “wait” leads to empirical prescription of antibiotics fuelling irrational use of “broad-spectrum” antibiotics resulting in increase in incidence of resistance to these essential therapeutic agents for common pathogenic bacteria. There are both manual and automated diagnostic tests available to test for antibiotic sensitivity of bacteria The existing automated technology, which takes 24hrs, requires trained manpower, sophisticated lab setup costs anywhere from Rs 12-49 lakhs, and the final cost to the patient is Rs 1100-1200/test.
Solution:
A novel indigenously developed technology for determining AST in < 4hrs, RightBiotic comes with a ready to use kit for rapid culture of pathogens and tests sensitivity to 14 antibiotics. It is small, portable, battery operated and provides results in a
ready to use format, at 1/4th the cost and in 1/6th the time taken on automated systems, does not require any trained manpower or lab setup and the assay can be run in any room on a table top surface, in a doctor’s clinic, at
PHCs and DHCs, in labs and wards.
The salient features of RightBiotic are:
1. Addresses the issue of increasing rise in antibiotic resistance & thus is an acute need of the hour
2. More than 10 lakhs Indians suffer from UTI on a daily basis
3. The test is comparable to the currently available tests but is ~20 times faster
4. Large number of Indians in rural settings do not have access to reliable testing facilities
5. Addresses the need for lack of trained manpower in India and other developing countries.
Test components include:
• A method which provides for rapid growth of pathogens in a specially designed proprietary medium
• Specially fabricated readout-machine, which displays results on a LCD screen and as a print out.
• Pre-functionalized antibiotic strips (customizable) allowing screening for 14 different antibiotics. CostEquipment cost for on spot ready- to- use results is only Rs 1 lac and cost per test is Rs 350/-
Scalability and Impact:
Direct beneficiaries will be rural and hard to reach populations where the doctors are prescribing empirical treatment as they lack access to labs as well as trained manpower.
India alone has around 05 lacs Primary health centers, 1.5 lac doctors’ clinics, 01 lac clinical diagnostic labs and over 3 lac hospitals who will all benefit from this technology. The team is currently working on soft launching the product in Indian market.
Financial Requirements:
NA
Awards and Recognition:
Awarded Gandhian Young Technology Innovation (GYTI) award -2015 for RightBiotic innovation