Test Kits Profiteering Exposed

Row intensifies over massive overcharging, Delhi HC steps in, orders to fix maximum price at ₹400 per kit

- Milan Sharma & Poonam Sharma

After a legal dispute in Delhi High Court between the distributor and the importer of Covid-19 rapid test kits being shipped from China over the massive profiteering and overpricing in kits sold to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the research body has claimed that the government will not lose any money on the procurement of “overpriced” China-made rapid antibody testing kits via distributors.

The ICMR claimed that the government did not opt for a 100% advance payment system and is yet to pay the distributors, thus, it will not lose any money on the deal. The matter of the overpriced kits came to light when pharmaceutical companies, who had entered into an agreement with Matrix Labs — the importer of the kits — to distribute the kits in India took the latter to court.