{"id":322660,"date":"2020-04-27T13:34:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T13:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=322660"},"modified":"2020-04-27T13:34:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T13:34:52","slug":"government-release-fact-sheet-following-controversy-over-prices-of-rapid-antibody-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/government-release-fact-sheet-following-controversy-over-prices-of-rapid-antibody-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Government release fact sheet following controversy over prices of rapid antibody tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-321791 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/virus-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"451\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-2-1.jpg 355w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-2-1-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/03\/virus-2-1-324x420.jpg 324w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\" \/>Government on Monday released a fact sheet in relation to the controversy that recently erupted over the prices of the Rapid Antibody tests in India.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The release issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the ICMR has not made any payment with respect to the supplies of the Chinese rapid antibody tests. It stated that the government will not lose a single rupee on the cancellation of the rapid testing kits from the two Chinese firms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cIt needs to be stressed that ICMR has not made any payment whatsoever in respect of these supplies. Because of the due process followed (not going for procurement with 100% advance amount), GoI does not stand to lose a single rupee,\u201d the release said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cIt is important to understand the background in which procurement decisions are made by ICMR. Testing is one of the most crucial weapons to fight COVID-19 and ICMR is doing everything it can to ramp up testing. This requires procurement of kits and supplying them to states. This procurement is being undertaken when globally there is huge demand for these test kits and various countries are applying their full might, monetary and diplomatic, to acquire them,\u201d it reads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">While clarifying at the ICMR&#8217;s attempts at the procurement of the rapid testing kits, the Health Ministry in a fact sheet said that the first attempt gathered no solid responses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">&#8220;ICMR\u2019S first attempt to procure these kits did not elicit any response from the suppliers. Its second attempt got adequate responses. Of these responses, taking sensitivity and specificity in mind, kits of 2 companies (Biomedemics and Wondfo) were identified for procurement. \u00a0Both had the requisite international certifications,&#8221; it said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cFor Wondfo, the evaluation committee received four\u00a0bids and the corresponding quotes received were Rs 1,204, Rs 1,200, Rs 844 and Rs 600. Accordingly, the bid offer of Rs 600 was considered as L-1, it added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In the meanwhile, ICMR also tried to procure the kits directly from Wondfo company in China through CGI. However, quotation received from direct procurement had the following issues:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Quotation was FOB (Free on Board) without any commitment on logistics issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The quotation was on the basis of 100% direct advance without any guarantees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">There was no commitment on timelines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Rates were communicated in US dollars without any clause for accounting for fluctuations in prices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Hence, it was decided to go Wondfo\u2019s exclusive distributor for India for the kit who quoted an all-inclusive price for FOB (logistics) without any clause for advance, it further said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cIt needs to be also remembered that this was the first ever effort by any Indian agency to procure such kits and the rate quoted by the bidders was the only reference point,\u201d the sheet said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cAfter receipt of some supplies, ICMR has again conducted quality checks on these kits in field conditions.\u00a0 Based on scientific assessment of their performance, the order in question (Wondfo) along with order in respect of another make found under-performing have been cancelled,\u201d it added.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government on Monday released a fact sheet in relation to the controversy that recently erupted over the prices of the Rapid Antibody tests in India. The release issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the ICMR has not made any payment with respect to the supplies of the Chinese rapid antibody [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":321791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[12750,9469],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322661,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322660\/revisions\/322661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/321791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}