Indonesian pharmaceutical firm to be sued for reusing Covid-19 nasal swab tests

A pair of Indonesian lawyers are planning to sue a state-owned pharmaceutical firm after it was discovered to have allegedly reused nasal swabs for coronavirus tests for thousands of people.

Last week, police arrested five workers at Kimia Farma, including the business manager of its Medan office, who were accused of washing and repacking cotton swabs at the company's main office in the city, and then sending them to Kualanamu International Airport where they were used on unsuspecting travelers, according to South China Morning Post.

Kualanamu airport offered the tests in conjunction with Kimia Farma, a major pharmaceutical producer and distributor.

Local police said that the alleged fraud came to light when an undercover police officer took a test at Kualanamu International Airport which produced a false positive result. The officer subsequently tested negative for coronavirus, reports South China Morning Post quoting police.

Two passengers who regularly passed through Kualanamu airport were human rights lawyers Ranto Sibarani and Kamal Pane.

Sibarani said he must have taken more than 10 tests at Kualanamu airport.

"I feel that I am the victim of serious fraud and that I was violated through my nose," he said.

Sibarani and Pane are planning to claim damages from Kimia Farma of 1 billion rupiah (US$69,000) per affected passenger and are compiling statements from potential victims of the scheme to launch a collective civil lawsuit.

Medan's police chief, RZ Panca Putra Simanjuntak, told reporters that more than 9,000 passengers may have been affected by the recycled rapid test kits. Between 100 and 200 passengers were tested every day at the airport, some with real kits and others with the repackaged ones.

The Kimia Farma employees may have pocketed up to 1.8 billion rupiah (US$125,000) since mid-December, said Simanjuntak, adding that authorities had seized more than 149 million rupiah (US$10,000) in cash during the arrests. He added that the police are following whether any passengers were infected by the reused swabs.