A veteran Filipino virologist expressed confidence Friday, Aug. 13, that the Philippines could produce its own diagnostic test kits for the detection of bacterial and viral pathogens.
Balik Scientist Dr. Elpidio Cesar Nadala Jr., co-founder of the Diagnostics for the Real World, Ltd (DRW), said he was ready to help the government address the lack of test kits in the country.
“We don’t have enough test kits, why? because it is so expensive and if you look at all of these tests that they do, they are not really worth thousand of pesos, they are like P200, P300 in RT-PCR, but because we buy everything ,we buy already-made kits for nucleic acid extraction for the RT-PCR, it makes it very expensive,” he said during their courtesy call on Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña on Friday.
Nadala and six other Balik Scientists who will be part of the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines or VIP were officially welcomed by de la Peña, Undersecretary for Research and Development (R&D) Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara and other high-ranking officials of the DOST.
“So my dream, and I am so happy that I am part of this group, is to come back to the Philippines and make sure we establish a diagnostic development unit where we can make everything we need for testing. These are either antibody-based tests, antigen tests or nucleic acid tests,” Nadala said.
“All these enzymes that are used in these tests, we can make them ourselves and get them very cheaply and the technology nowadays is that you just need to know the sequence of the genome of your target and you can make tests very fast,” he said.
Nadala is a virologist and microbiologist with 20 years of experience in academic research and 17 years in the industry developing diagnostic assays for the detection of bacterial and viral pathogens.
He is the co-founder of the Diagnostics for the Real World, Ltd (DRW), where he spearheaded the development of rapid diagnostic tests for the detection of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) surface antigen, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) antibodies, and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) antibodies, as well as improved versions of the CE-marked Chlamydia rapid test.
In February 2020, his team started the development of the SAMBA II SARS-CoV-2 test for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA which was developed and validated within two months. The SAMBA II SARS-CoV-2 test is now being used in 79 hospitals and schools in the U.K. with a total of 648 Assay Modules deployed and 300,000 tests used so far.
“We were shipping out kits to the UK and now we have produced a million tests for them and have two million more they are asking for. These tests are being used in hospitals because it is a two-hour test maximum, an hour and a half and when they have people coming to the emergency room and they want to know the status they can test. That’s the kind of test we need over there and not the test that you will find out two days later. What will the hospitals do, people will be staying outside lining up in the emergency room,” Nadala said.
“I want to really help establish diagnostic development unit for the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines.”
The DOST cited that from 2008 to 2018, Nadala worked in the food and environmental testing industry, where he led a group of 17 Ph.D. scientists and three technicians in R&D to develop and produce cutting edge diagnostic kits and reagents (PCR/qPCR reagents and immunodiagnostic assays) to detect pathogens, parasites, toxins, GMO, antibiotics, allergens, and other adulterants in food and water.
Nadala got his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Microbiology at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He also earned Masters in Microbiology, Doctorate in Microbiology and Animal Virology, and Post-Doctorate in Aquatic Virology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu.
He also pursued a Post-Doctorate in Medical Biotechnology at the National University of Singapore then another Post-Doctorate in Aquatic Virology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and finally a Post-Doctorate in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, United Kingdom.