Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - April 3, 2003
Busrin Treerapongpichit
Forty researchers were currently involved in the effort to develop ways to test for the deadly virus, said Ninlawan Pichayayothin, the company's president and chief executive.
"We (BRIA) are ready for this task since we are among the world's most capable companies in the medical quick-test equipment business," she said.
She conceded, however, that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus had to be identified first before the equipment could be developed.
BRIA, established 21 years ago, produces and distributes various medical quick-test kits, such as for pregnancy and drug diagnoses.
Mrs Ninlawan said the HIV kit called Bioline HIV 1/2 was developed after eight years of research. The kit, which has an error rate of 2%, has been endorsed by the Thai Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organisation.
"We were the second company, following a Japanese firm, to successfully develop five-minute quick test equipment for HIV infection," Mrs Ninlawan said. Now seven companies worldwide produce the kits.
BRIA offers a 20-minute HIV quick test equipment product in the market currently.
Mrs Ninlawan said the company planned to market the 20-minute HIV test product in developing countries through its 35 exclusive distributors.
"The company's equipment price is much lower than that of conventional test equipment developed by the world's major medical R&D companies. So we think our product is most likely to be popular among low per capita income countries," she said.
The kits will be priced for export at US$3 (128 baht) per unit.
Mrs Ninlawan said the company's test kit was likely to be used as a substitute for imported conventional test equipment that costs more and requires hours of processing and expert users.
She said BRIA's production capacity for the HIV test equipment was 100,000 units a day.
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