On its 7th Foundation Day, Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) officially launched 7 products including the Smart Scope by Periwinkle Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
India has a mission to turn biotechnology into a US $100bn industry by 2025 and organization like Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is playing a very important and active role in achieving the same. BIRAC celebrated its 7th Foundation Day on March 22nd, 2019.
The 7th Foundation Day also saw the launch of various innovative products by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman NITI Aayog. While launching the same, he said “BIRAC has done excellent work in being able to connect and communicate with upcoming innovators. It is important to not just function as the fund provider, but to handhold and aid young innovators to develop and scale their innovations for improved health outcomes in India”.
The products that were launched include:
Smart Scope by Periwinkle Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Founded by Veena Moktali, a Pune based start-up Periwinkle Technologies is dedicated to enhancing medical diagnostics and care by designing innovative products that use technology. Smart Scope by this start-up has been designed for doctors to perform routine cervical health checkups in women. The clinical validation of the device has been done by Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai and Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital & Research Centre Pune. The development of this product was supported through BIRAC-MEITY-IIPME scheme
When asked about her innovation, Veena Moktali said, “This has the value add of providing a single-visit and highly accurate (90%+ sensitivity) screening test for cervical cancer and related high risk abnormalities which many women are vulnerable to because of hormonal changes. Every year around the world, 1B+ women can be screened with this. When compared to the prevalent lab-based techniques and other cervical diagnostic equipment, the Smart Scope® has advantages in terms of immediateness of result, ease of use by semi-skilled staff, expert-independent procedure, referral mechanism for complete follow up, portability, and independence of other infrastructure needed.”
“It will reduce the mortality due to cervical cancer – currently at 300K worldwide deaths every year – by making early detection of precancerous changes possible at OPD level. It will give women a chance to have better reproductive health through access to an easy and affordable test at a local primary healthcare provider (public and private). This is especially important since there is no effective cervical cancer screening test available anywhere in the world today”, she added.
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