Chinese firms stand by test kits

They say products approved by ICMR, NIV Pune and meet ISO norms

25/04/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Failing the test: The ICMR had halted surveillance testing for two days over complaints of faulty kits. M. Moorthy

Leading Chinese makers of rapid testing kits for COVID-19 have expressed shock and surprise at the reports of malfunctioning of the devices they had supplied to India, saying the products have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology. The clarification came as more Chinese supplies seemed set to arrive in India during the rest of the month.

“Wondfo received import licence from India for Wondfo SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test [Lateral Flow Method] on March 20, 2020. And the product was validated and approved by the ICMR through National Institute of Virology [NIV], Pune,” said a statement from Wondfo, one of the major global suppliers of rapid testing kits required to deal with the COVID-19 viral infection.

A similar statement was issued by Livzon Diagnostics Inc, the other Chinese supplier that also supplied a bulk of the kits. They said the products met the ISO-9001 standards.

The statements from the Chinese medical device companies came a day after the ICMR advised stoppage of use of rapid test kits for two days, largely due to complaints of variation in the tests.

The controversy is, however, unlikely to dent the medical supplies from China. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India was likely to get more medical goods from China.

“In the past two weeks, around two dozen flights departed for India from five cities in China carrying nearly 400 tonnes of medical supplies, including RT-PCR test kits, Rapid Antibody Tests, PPE kits, thermometers etc. Around 20 more flights are expected to bring supplies from China in the coming days,” said Mr. Srivastava.