Nagpur: Govt labs ordered to stop using faulty RT-PCR kits

NAGPUR: Government labs in the regions were on Wednesday asked not to use RT-PCR kits manufactured by West Bengal-based GCC Biotech Ltd following state public health minister Rajesh Tope’s sensational revelation that entire batch of about 12.5 lakh kits made by the private firm were faulty.

Much before this, the public labs in city had found them unreliable and stopped using them since September when they were procured by state govt.

Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) head Dr TP Lahane told TOI that none of the public labs including the Vidarbha region used these kits. “The kits were supplied all over the state. Where ever we felt necessary, repeat tests were done,” he said.

Nagpur district civil surgeon Dr Devendra Paturkar said he didn’t have details on how many such kits were supplied, if at all. “We are trying to find it out. We shall confirm with medical colleges and other labs how many such kits they received,” he said.

He added that there was no official notification on stopping the use of GCC-made kits. Yet, lab officials confirmed to TOI that the DMER in its morning video conferencing asked in-charges to not to use these kits until further order.

Contrary to Lahane’s claim, lab officials in the city claimed that some of the “faulty kits” were used but repeat test were done on such samples.

AIIMS Nagpur spokesperson said they had used the kits initially but noticed issues. “We conducted validation and tests and repeated tests in such cases using kits from Meryl and NIV which were procured by the institute,” the spokesperson said.

IGGMCH lab officials said no faulty kit was used by them for testing city samples.

IGGMCH labs said the GCC kits are yet to be opened while they had been banking on ICMR’s Bhopal depot for their testing requirements.

As per medical colleges, the deputy director of health services (DDHS) distributes it to labs as per requirement put up by them based on their per day testing capacity.

Labs, both public and private, in the region are depending on the ICMR’s Bhopal depot which are supplying RT-PCR kits approved by the apex body.

Govt labs claim they have a buffer stock of around 10,000 kits each coming in from Bhopal.

Besides Bhopal, kits are sourced from multiple agencies like DMER through Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd and NIV Pune.

The private labs buy it from distributors based on performance and only after validation.

As on date, Nagpur district has performed 2,88,539 RT-PCR tests, of which 3,075 have tested positive.