The article reveals a rapid sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the highly-sensitive detection of human C-reactive protein (CRP) in less than 30 min. It employs a one-step kinetics-based highly simplified and cost-effective sandwich ELISA procedure with minimum process steps. The procedure involves the formation of a sandwich immune complex on capture anti-human CRP antibody-bound Dynabeads(®) in 15 min followed by two magnet-assisted washings and one enzymatic reaction. The developed sandwich ELISA detects CRP in the dynamic range of 0.3-81 ng mL(-1) with a limit of detection and analytical sensitivity of 0.4 ng mL(-1) and 0.7 ng mL(-1), respectively. It detects CRP spiked in diluted human whole blood and serum with high analytical precision as confirmed by conventional sandwich ELISA. Moreover, the results of the developed ELISA for the determination of CRP in the ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) plasma samples of patients are in good agreement with those obtained by the conventional ELISA. The developed immunoassay has immense potential for the development of rapid and cost-effective in vitro diagnostic kits.