The UK-based health technology firm Mologic has created a 10-minute coronavirus antibody test costing $1 (around ₹75) and has begun sending its prototypes to laboratories for validation. The prototypes are ready to be optimised, a development that will help fight the pandemic significantly, according to media reports.

The tests have been developed to ascertain whether people have previously been infected, as opposed to antigen tests which show if someone has the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus, Reuters reported.

According to the report, the examination of tests began this week at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the St Georges Hospital. The global partners are also present at the hospital to test the prototype.

Paul Davis, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Mologic told Reuters: “Completion of the first prototypes is a significant step in Mologic’s development of a rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19, and we are proud of our team’s achievement in reaching this point so quickly, while maintaining the most rigorous standards.”

Britain has bought 3.5 million antibody testing kits from different suppliers and is currently making sure they work before distributing them.

A health official told lawmakers on Wednesday that an unnamed prototype was being examined in Oxford this week. The prototypes that will pass the test, will then be distributed mainly through online platforms such as Amazon.