50.000 diagnostic tests for COVID-19, developed by Slovak scientists with the support of global cybersecurity company ESET, were delivered to Nairobi, Kenya as part of theletterof SlovakAid humanitarian aid of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia.
The humanitarian aid shipment took place on July 27 and – in addition to the 50.000 diagnostic tests – included a thermal cycler (PCR) for theenergy of tests as well as 20.000 FFP2 respirators.
The diagnostic test was approved by the State Drug Control Institute of the Slovak Republic on 14 May 2020 and entered in the European Register EUDAMED on 26 May 2020 for distribution in Europe as an in vitro diagnostic test with CE marking. The diagnostic kit is named vDetect COVID-19 RT-qPCR and was developed through the collective research of scientists from the Slovak company MultiplexDX, the Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Science Center of the Komenius University in Bratislava and experts from the companies Lambda Life and ProScience Tech.
"As one of the key players in the development of the COVID-19 diagnostic test, ESET is pleased to see that countries in need of assistance, such as Kenya, can benefit from our efforts. We are ready to contribute to similar initiatives in the future, "said Palo Luka, CEO of ESET.
"We have rapidly developed a new PCR test for COVID-19 that can reliably help diagnose patients at an early stage," said Pavol Čekan, founder of MultiplexDX. "Having supplied a large number of diagnostic tests for laboratory needs in Slovakia, we have focused our efforts on increasing production to meet the needs of other countries that can benefit from the test, such as Kenya."
