Inventors: Rekacipta Bioteknologi Indonesia
PT Rekacipta Bioteknologi Indonesia is a biotechnology start-up developing diagnostic kit production technology. Their first product, Hepasona, is an ELISA-based diagnostic kit that qualitatively detects the presence of the Hepatitis B virus in the human body.
Indonesia currently imports a high level of diagnostic kit products, especially for virus-based diseases. Therefore it is a key strategic focus for Indonesia to reduce the dependence on importing diagnostic kits. The aim is that this will reduce Indonesia’s dependence on imports, and also reduce the costs of these tests.
The inventors have been developing a new Hepatitis B kit since 2017. As a first step, the inventors successfully mastered the technology for producing ELISA- and immunochromatography-based (rapid tests) diagnostic kits. With this skill, they were able to successfully develop various kits, such as a Hepatitis B diagnostic kit (qualitative), Hepatitis B diagnostic kit (quantitative), and an anti-Hepatitis B diagnostic kit. The resulting kit to detect Hepatitis B was shown to have 100% specificity and sensitivity.
The question for the i-Team is to investigate the best routes to market for the Hepasona test kit. For example, who will purchase the kits, and who will decide whether to use the Hepasona test or competitive tests. Medical markets have complex value chains, and the feedback from the i-Team’s market research will help the inventors develop an appropriate strategy for deploying the Hepasona test as widely as possible within the Indonesia market.