Live Correspondent: The Directorate General of Drug Administration has refused to accept the COVID-19 test kit developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra, said the Kendra’s founder Zafrullah Chowdhury on Sunday. He also said that the DGDA appeared indifferent and non-cooperative to efforts of developing the kits.

In a briefing at Gonoshasthaya Kendra Hospital at Dhanmondi in Dhaka, Zafrullah alleged that the directorate wanted to serve the business interest of some private companies, not of the people. The briefing took place hours after DGDA allegedly declined to accept Gonoshasthaya-manufactured samples of COVID-19 testing kits for external validation.

Earlier on Saturday, the Kendra unveiled its kits named Rapid Dot Blot to test COVID-19. The organisation planned to handover the samples to that the DGDA officers at a programme, but no government officers turned up there despite being invited. Zafrullah at the briefing said that a three-member Gonoshasthaya Kendra team, including Bijon Kumar Sil, the scientist who developed the kit, went to the Drug Administration office to handover samples to get approval.

‘Drug Administration asked us to complete validation through a third party research organisation. They recommended ICDDR,B, but that organisation is currently under lockdown,’ said Zafrullah.

Dhaka, April 26 (campuslive24.com)//Ait