The objective now is to produce 500,000 units of this test per day to export it worldwide. The Turkish government began as early as January to fund research to find a vaccine for coronavirus.
Serhat Pala and his wife Zeynep Ilgaz Pala, a couple of Turkish scientists currently living in the United States, have announced the development of a test capable of detecting the presence of the coronavirus with a simple drop of blood in a period of 3 to 10 minutes, versus the 24 hours that it can take with the current method.
The Turkish couple has developed the new method through the company that they have created in San Diego (California, USA), Confirm Biosciences, where they assure that a month ago they managed to develop the new test to detect the virus, which is already being mass-produced for export to other countries.
“We have developed the tests with our Chinese partner, and have put them on the market. The detection kit detects the virus with a small drop of blood using lateral flow technology,” the couple explained, adding that this new detection kit already has been exported to China, Europe and other continents. The goal now is to produce half a million tests daily so that hospitals around the world can diagnose COVID-19 quickly.
“We are ready to cooperate with the Turkish Ministry of Health”
The Pala are Turkish citizens who, after graduating from Istanbul’s Bosporus University, in 1997 moved to live in the United States, where they started a small company – called Test Country – that they created with very little money in their own house garage.
In fact, although they currently reside outside Turkey, they assure that what they most want is to be able to help their native country. “Our duty is to contribute to our country. We are ready to cooperate with the Turkish Ministry of Health,” they insist.
Turkish government funds vaccine research
For his part, the Minister of Industry and Technology of Turkey, Mustafa Varank, explained on Tuesday during an R&D meeting held in Ankara that the Turkish government is financing laboratories, research centres and scientists across the country working in the development of a vaccine against the new virus.
“We fund and coordinate studies through the TÜBİTAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council). Our universities and research centres began in January to focus more intensively on the field of vaccine development and the fight against coronavirus,” said the minister.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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