Expired medical testing kits seized from 3 firms

A medical product supply company in the capital has been importing expired testing kits and supplying those to government and private hospitals tempering the expiry dates.

The testing kits were used for detecting Covid-19, cancer, diabetics, HIV, and jaundice.

Biolab International, a medical product supplying company, and two of its associate organisations -- Exon Technologies and Services Ltd, and Hi-Tech HealthCare Ltd -- were involved in the illegal activities and earned a huge sum of money allegedly joining hands with a section of government and private hospital staffers.

Rapid Action Battalion-2 got the sensational information after it raided three companies and arrested nine top executives and staffers of the firms.

A Rab-2 team, led by an executive magistrate, raided the warehouses of the companies from Thursday afternoon till yesterday.

Representatives from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) assisted the drive, said Rab officials.

During the raid, the Rab team found staffers of the companies attaching expiry date tags using a special printing machine on different test kits, they added.

Members of Rab-2 also seized a good amount of date expired kits and reagents from the warehouses.

The arrestees include the proprietor of Biolab International Mohammad Shamim Mollah, 40, Managing Director of Exon Technologies & Services Ltd Mahmudul Hasan, 40, and Managing Director of Hi-Tech HealthCare Ltd SM Mostafa Kamal, 48.

During primary investigation and interrogation of the arrestees, Rab came to know that the accused in connivance with each other had collected medical test kits and reagents, which already expired or would expire soon, with minimal costs from local and foreign importers, said Rab officials.

They then temper the expiry date tags, attaching a fake expiry date with a special printing machine, and supply the test kits and reagents to different pathological labs, the officials added.

DGDA representatives, who accompanied Rab officials during the raids, said they did not give permission to import such kits and reagents from those countries. The arrestees also admitted that they did not take permission, said Rab-2 Commanding Officer Lt Col Imran Ullah Sarkar.

"They import testing kits and reagents from little-known companies in China, Belgium, and Germany and supply those with a tempered expiry date to many known pathological laboratories," Rab-2 Assistant Director (media) Abdul Al Mamun told The Daily Star.

He said the companies could not show legal documents required to import and stock the pathological test kits and reagents.

Rab officials also said the top executives admitted that they in connivance with each other imported the kits and reagents for Covid-19 and diseases like jaundice, diabetes, pneumonia, and cancer from little-known companies.

"Even pathological test kits and reagents to test AIDS were also found in the warehouses and those were found to be expired," said the Rab officer.

The other arrestees are the manager of Biolab-International Shahidul Alam, 42, its engineer Abdullah Al Baki Sabbir, 24, and staffers Ziaur Rahman, 35, Mohammad Sumon, 35, Zahidul Amin Pulak, 27, and Sohel Rana, 28.

The Rab-2 chief said during primary interrogation the top executives of the companies admitted that they have been doing illegal business since 2010.

The official said they were collecting information about the hospitals, which used to collect kits from the companies and trying to identify the hospital staffers' links with the syndicate.

Meanwhile, a case was filed with Mohammadpur Police Station around 11:30pm yesterday against the nine arrestees under the Special Powers Act, said Rab Director (legal and media wing) Commander Khandaker Al Moin. The seized items include 35 types of test kits and reagents.