HTA of FELUDA diagnostic test for COVID-19

Abstract

Testing capacity has been the achilles heel for most of the low-and low-middle income countries responding to the current COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to a number of innovations in health technology globally and India has been no exception. In this study, a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) was done on the recently indigenously developed innovative FELUDA test for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in India. The HTA shows that at the current price of INR 500 (USD 6.8), FELUDA is a cost effective test as compared to RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). Since, field sensitivity and specificity is unknown for this test, it is recommended that the test be first piloted and monitored for field sensitivity and specificity before roll out. This is the first HTA on a COVID-19 related health technology from India and future HTA's at different points in the life cycle of FELUDA is recommended to guide policy.

Study of Various Diagnostic Tests for COVID-19: A Review

“…This is a novel test developed in India and has been recently approved by the DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) and is now being used at INR 500 per test [29]. FELUDA stands for "Francisella novicida Cas9 (FnCas9) Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay," and is based on CRISPR-Cas9 technology (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats).…”