COXY-AMP, a rapid COVID-19 colorimetric detection kit developed by BIOTEC-NSTDA, in collaboration with the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, has been certified by the FDA Thailand for meeting the performance requirements as stipulated in the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health B.E. 2563 requiring performance evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 test kits and reagents to be manufactured in or imported to Thailand.
COXY-AMP is a simple one-step method and the result, as indicated by the color change, can be visualized with naked eyes. The test employs loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique to amplify genetic materials of SARS-CoV-2, the causative of COVID-19.
The tests are simple to use, by adding extracted RNA to the reaction tubes and incubating the tubes at 65°C for 75 minutes. The reaction turns yellow if SAR-CoV-2 RNA is present in the sample. COXY-AMP has 92% sensitivity, 100% specificity and 97% accuracy. COXY-AMP reagents cost around 300 THB/test, compared to 1,000 THB for the RT-qPCR method.
This research team, named 19-Xolution, was among 20 finalist teams in the XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing Challenge, a competition aiming to develop faster, cheaper and easier to use COVID-19 testing methods.
