The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has designed a diagnostic kit for detection of Omicron variant of the coronavirus and has invited Expression of Interest from in vitro diagnostics (IVD) kit manufacturers for undertaking transfer of technology for its development and commercialisation.

The ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, NE, Dibrugarh, one of the institutes of the ICMR, New Delhi, has developed a novel technology -- real-time RT-PCR assay for detection of Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of SARS-CoV2 and a kit for the same.

"ICMR is the owner of the said technology, including any underlying intellectual property(ies) and commercialisation rights. ICMR is lawfully entitled to enter into any form of non-exclusive license agreements with selected manufacturer/manufacturers, including transfer of technology through suitable agreement to any other interested manufacturers," the invitation of Expression of Interest document said.

"ICMR, New Delhi, invites Expression of Interest (EOI) through email from experienced IVD kit manufacturers for undertaking transfer of technology for development and commercialisation of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) Real time RT-PCR assay (RT-PCR) through a novel diagnostic kit, developed by ICMR," the invitation of EoI said.

Subject to the terms and conditions of an agreement, more particularly a license agreement, ICMR shall grant a non-exclusive license to the manufacturer, a royalty-bearing right and license to use and practice the technology and process ("licensed technology") to manufacture, sell and commercialise the product, including a non-exclusive right to manufacture, sell and market products worldwide and the right to use licensed technology for manufacturing products worldwide.

The agreement, following EoI, is proposed to be executed on a "non-exclusive" basis with multiple manufacturers due to the extensive demand of SARS-CoV2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) real-time RT-PCR assay that is being envisaged, the document said.

The development comes as the country logged 6,563 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day. India's total tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 3,47,46,838, while the active cases declined to 82,267, the lowest in 572 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to 4,77,554 with 132 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases comprise 0.24 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.39 per cent, the highest since March 2020,the ministry said.

A decline of 1,646 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.