Consider AlphaBioLabs, a small private service in northwestern England that was, until now, probably best known for carrying out DNA tests on “The Jeremy Kyle Show,” a tabloid-style daytime TV program in Britain that was canceled last year.
In a statement published on March 20, the lab said it had been “shocked and saddened to receive so many desperate inquiries from front-line organizations, such as the N.H.S., needing the Covid-19 screening test.” The company pledged to sell its “initial stock” to the National Health Service at cost, but did not say how many testing kits that included.
Three days earlier, AlphaBioLabs — which has since stopped marketing the test to the public — had announced that it would be selling its kit for £125. One newspaper hailed the news with the headline: “Brit lab’s new finger-prick test can ‘detect virus in 15 minutes.’” But the British lab did not create the test. The one advertised on its website was made by an American company, BioMedomics. Each kit costs around $2 to manufacture and no more than $9 to buy wholesale.
(...) Dr. Ali, who runs the Private Harley Street Clinic in London, said he was unrepentant about his trading, after taking orders for nearly 7,000 tests at £375 each. He said he had donated 100 tests to the N.H.S. “I’m entirely comfortable with the price, and if somebody else wants to offer it for less, that’s fine,” he said in an interview. “I believe the people should be tested, so I’m going to offer it.” What Dr. Ali is offering for that £375 takes some explanation.
The Private Harley Street Clinic does not manufacture the coronavirus test kits, nor does it distribute them or process any test results. Yet it has sold the testing kits for more than three times the £120 that the manufacturer, Randox Laboratories in Northern Ireland, charges the public directly. Once ordered on the Private Harley Street Clinic website, the tests are shipped from Randox directly to customers without ever passing through the clinic. Dr. Ali declined to say what he paid for the kits and claimed not to know what profit he had made, but he said that his price included clinical advice.
Private Harley Street Clinic’s main asset appears to be the marketing value its name brings through an association with the renowned medical street in London — despite company records showing that the “clinic” is actually based at Dr. Ali’s apartment, miles away in North London. The firm was incorporated in 2017 shortly after Dr. Ali’s two previous companies, which had almost identical names, were struck off the government’s register of companies for failing to provide required financial data. Private Harley Street Clinic was also threatened with being struck off until it posted financial accounts last summer, which showed that it had total net assets of less than £200.
Dr. Ali said that his clinic had delivered orders for tests worth £1 million so far and that he had been so overwhelmed with requests that he had been forced to hire temporary employees to take calls. The doctor said he planned to hire more staff members this week to help cope with the surge.
(...) Other kits, however, are just fraudulent. Last week, the European Anti-Fraud Office began an inquiry into fake coronavirus products, including counterfeit test kits, masks, medical devices and sanitizers, that were being sold around the world for “potentially huge illicit profits.” A few days after the investigation was opened, a 59-year-old man, Frank Ludlow, appeared in court in Brighton, southern England, accused of making fake kits that he had touted as a treatment for the novel coronavirus but that actually contained potentially harmful chemicals. He was arrested after the law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles intercepted a package containing 60 of the fake kits.
NY Times
Originally Posted by Raffe
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