Tasnim � An Iranian knowledge-based company is going to export a homegrown test kit that allows rapid detection of the novel coronavirus in saliva within 55 minutes.

Researchers at the Iranian company, affiliated with Amirkabir University of Technology, have developed the advanced test kit using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) system to detect COVID-19 in saliva.

The CEO of the company says the kit works on the basis of molecular identification of oral fluid for the diagnosis of coronavirus in less than an hour.

The Pasteur Institute of Iran has approved the test kits, and the company is going to mass produce them, Amir Abbas Esmaeilzadeh said.

The company has received purchase orders from the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Romania, Spain and the UK, and has applied for permission for exports to Europe, he added.

The accuracy of the Iranian test kits is 2.5 to 10 times higher than that of the ones imported from abroad, the CEO added.

In April, Iranian Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari inaugurated a plant manufacturing coronavirus diagnostic test kits with a capacity to produce 100,000 kits that utilize PCR analysis and 2 million serologic test kits per week.