Chinese authorities recently announced it would investigate Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology following an accusation that it sold defective COVID-19 test kits to the Czech Republic and Spain at marked-up costs.
The said announcement came out following reports from the local news outlets that most of the rapid test kits the country bought the Chinese company was believed to be too inaccurate in producing reliable diagnosis on possible patients of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, a Czech Republic-based news site reported that about 120,000 out of the 150,000 portable "rapid test kits for COVID-19 from China were substandard."
The test was supposed to produce results in just less than 15 minutes. Nevertheless, the error rate was very high. In addition, reports had it that the Chinese company was paid an amount of $546,000 for more than 100,000 test kits. The Interior Ministry that paid for the remaining 50,000, on the other hand, refused to reveal the amount it paid.
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Bioeasy Biotechnology's Claim
The health officials in Spain discovered "the kits only correctly identified 30 percent of the COVID-19 cases." Because of this, the country returned the 9,000 test kits because of the high error rate. Bioeasy Biotechnology, for its part, said it's not their fault. It also added the defective results were because of the failure of the health workers "in collecting samples and correctly using the kits."
Also according to the firm's representatives, they haven't had the chance to teach their buyers how to operate the kits.
Moreover, the Chinese firm offered for replacements of the defective test kits. It also guaranteed the health officials the specificity and sensitivity needed so they can help the strongly affected country combat COVID-19.
Bioeasy also said it already got in touch with the Spanish Ministry of Health after receiving reports of the defective COVID-19 test kits. Immediately, they provided an instructed video, as well as related cards to Spain's healthcare officials.
New Batch Now with Accurate Result but Not Recommended by the Chinese Embassy
Reportedly, an institute on infectious disease and clinical microbiology based in Spain tried a new batch of the same products said the results were already producing accurate results, so far. Additionally, this Chinese company claimed, "The Spanish Health Ministry ordered another batch of test kits and extended their contract."
In addition, the Ministry officials said, they will start depending on slower molecular lab testing while waiting for the replacement kits. Relatively, lab tests usually take roughly four hours to come out with a result and needs a specialized personnel's supervision.
The Chinese Embassy in Spain, on the other hand, said Bioeasy was not listed on the recommended companies it provided the authorities in Spain. In a statement it made on Thursday, the Spanish government clarified the issue saying, the defective kits involved in the said incident were not the kits it purchased from the Chinese government.
More so, the kits were reportedly imported by a supplier in Spain, from a manufacturer in China. The products were stamped with certification, allowing them to be "sold within the European Economic Area." The stamps, on the other hand, are used to specify conformity with the environmental, health and safety standards.
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