Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury. File Photo.

"When our team went to the drug administration to hand over our kits for testing, it said we have to go through the CROs [contract research organisations]," said Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder and Trustee Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury at a press conference at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in the city yesterday.

CROs are the companies that are contracted by the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) for medical research.

"We then requested the DGDA to write which CRO we would go through, but it did not," Dr Zafrullah said.

He said CROs are contracted by the DGDA and therefore it should send the kits to them for testing, instead of Gonoshasthaya having to "directly go to the CROs".

Dr Zafrullah demanded that the government immediately make arrangements to start the process of kit validation.

"We don't know why the DGDA is handling the issue bureaucratically, when this is an emergency and we need to save lives. A day's delay may mean thousands of lives [lost]," he said.

Businesses and educational institutions are closed and that has had serious economic and social implications. There is pressures to reopen factories, he said, adding that their low-cost kit, which can lead to large-scale testing, is a must if businesses, and specifically factories, are to reopen.

The kit -- Rapid Dot Blot -- that was developed by a team of researchers of Gonoshasthaya Kendra is capable of testing antibody and antigen. Trials by Gonoshasthaya Kendra found its accuracy to be more than 90 percent.

The kit was supposed to be handed over to the DGDA on April 11, but it was not possible due to technical glitches at the factory of Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Limited, a sister concern of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, although the Directorate General of Health Services had provided samples to Gonoshasthaya to be tested.

On April 12, Gonoshasthaya again applied to the Directorate General of Health Services for blood samples of Covid-19 patients. The DGDA eventually provided it on April 23.

"Our scientists worked day and night to test the blood samples and prepare the kits. Now, when we are urging the DGDA to do its part by approving after validation, we see sheer disinterest. I don't know why. Some quarters may be misleading the DGDA," Zafrullah said.

Gonoshasthaya organised a handover ceremony at its Nagar Hospital on April 25, when the DGDA representatives were scheduled to attend and receive the kits, but there were none from the DGDA.

It handed over kit samples to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and the US Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) for independent validation.

"As DGDA representatives did not come to the event, we contacted them and went there today, but we had no idea we had to face such bureaucracy," Zafrullah said.

"It is such a big emergency in Bangladesh, but some bureaucrats of the government are not realising it… they are more interested in private interest than that of public interest," he said.

Dr Firoz Ahmed, one of the researchers, said they want the prime minister's personal intervention to ensure that DGDA promptly arranges the validation process of the kit.

The team of researchers who developed the kit include Dr Bijon Kumar Sil, Nihad Adnan, Raeed Jamiruddin, Firoz Ahmed and Mohib Ullah Khondokar.

Dr Bijon was among the researchers who had developed a kit to diagnose SARS coronavirus in 2003. Rapid Dot Blot is patented under his name.

CITIZENS CONCERNED

Fifty-five eminent personalities in a joint statement yesterday expressed concern over repressive measures against health workers and government's apathy to give approval to Gonoshasthaya Kendra's Covid-19 test kits.

"With deep concern, we are noticing the government's limitation to stem the spread of coronavirus is sending the people of the country to an uncertain future," said the statement.

The statement said that government limitations will be further exposed as it is taking repressive measure against doctors and health workers and government disinterest to give approval to Gonoshasthaya Kendra's and RNA Biotech limited Covid-19 test kits and its production, and publicly demeaning Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder and freedom fighter Zafrullah Chowdhury, the statement added.

Government is importing testing kits or taking grants but not providing necessary help to home-grown test kit initiatives.

None from the DGDA was present at the Gonoshasthaya Kendra's handover ceremony to collect kits, it said, adding: "This shows government's disinterest nakedly."

Moreover, a section of the media are harassing Zafrullah publicly and trying to start a campaign to make the Gonoshasthaya Kendra's test kit questionable, the statement added.

Among others Dhaka University professor emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury, Central Women's University Vice Chancellor Prof Perween Hasan, former DU professors Akmal Hossain and Ahmed Kamal, Jahangirnagar University professor Anu Muhammad, professor Naila Zaman Khan, photographer Shahidul Alam, professor Meghna Guhathakurta, professor Gitiara Nasreen, anthropologist and columnist Rahnuma Ahmed and journalist Golam Mortoza signed the statement.