The federal government’s $200m purchase of Covid-19 testing kits from Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation caught the Australian diagnostics industry by surprise, lacked transparency and came after a detailed audit showed there was “more than enough technology already in the field”, the sector’s peak body has claimed.
The mining magnate and philanthropist announced in April that he had secured 10m Covid-19 PCR tests for Australia from the Chinese manufacturer Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) at a cost of $200m, which would be refunded by the federal government.
Forrest and his philanthropic arm, the Minderoo Foundation, had set about securing the tests for the government at a time of extreme global demand and broken supply chains.
Since the Minderoo deal was announced, the Guardian has revealed that the take-up of the BGI tests has been patchy. Many state public pathology bodies said they had no need for the tests, contrary to prior government claims that they would be used by public health units throughout 2020.
Now the pathology technology sector has raised its own concerns about the circumstances surrounding the purchase.
Pathology Technology Australia, a peak industry body that represents manufacturers and suppliers of testing technology, says its members supply 90% of all pathology tests and associated technology used in Australia.
Despite this, it was told nothing of the Minderoo plan to introduce new BGI testing technology midway through Australia’s pandemic response.
The chief executive of Pathology Technology Australia, Dean Whiting, said the sector welcomed competition and diversity, had “no problem with the entry of new players”, and said overall the government’s pandemic response had been excellent.
But he said that shouldn’t stop the Australian government learning from the Minderoo deal.
“Where we have a problem here was that there was a complete lack of transparency upfront and a complete lack of consultation and discussion with how this would fit within the current laboratory setup that we have in Australia,” Whiting told the Guardian.
“We had completed and submitted a very detailed audit of the current technology already in Australian laboratories for this kind of testing, and we had determined there was more than enough technology already in the field to significantly ramp up testing.
“Where we lacked a little bit was that there was a tightness of supply of some of the crucial consumables … but that was being pretty well managed speaking frankly.”
The peak group, which has also made a submission to the inquiry into Australia’s Covid-19 response, said the entire purchase and implementation could have been far smoother if industry had been consulted.
“Probably the biggest misstep the government made in the Minderoo and in the lateral flow antibody tests is that they just didn’t adequately consult with the industry, and that really appears to shine through here. Just that lack of consultation.”
A spokesman for the health minister, Greg Hunt, said it worked with Pathology Technology Australia on its pandemic response but said it would have been “completely inappropriate” to consult the industry about acquiring the BGI tests.
“The Australian government does not consult peak bodies on procurement contracts,” he said. “In particular it would have been completely inappropriate to consult Pathology Technology Australia on the purchase of BGI Covid-19 equipment and testing supplies given the Australian government was also in contract negotiations for Covid-19 equipment and testing supplies with key personnel on the Pathology Technology Australia board and their members.”
The spokesman said the diversification of Covid-19 testing equipment was instrumental in Australia’s successful testing regime and that following the purchase of the BGI tests, a number of major suppliers had increased Covid-19 testing supplies.
“Prior to this they were advising Australian pathology laboratories that they could not meet projected demand nor guarantee supply due to the global demand and shortages,” he said. “The BGI tests are currently in use in Australian pathology laboratories and have provided support for expanded testing in a number of states.”
The Minderoo Foundation said it was only doing what it had been asked to do by the federal government, and was pleased to have “played our part in allowing the economy to reopen safely”.
“Minderoo Foundation was asked by the federal government to help procure Covid-19 testing capacity and we are pleased to have been able to do so,” a spokesman said.
“Our only priority has been to do what the Government has asked us to do: deliver and install Covid-19 PCR testing equipment and tests that substantially increase Australia’s testing capacity.
Pathology Technology Australia also raised concerns about the government’s purchase of 1.5m rapid antibody testing kits, a different method of Covid-19 testing to the nucleic acid laboratory tests purchased by Minderoo.
It said the rapid testing kits had a role to play in the response, but that the “seriously flawed” approach to acquiring them had raised serious concerns and lowered overall confidence in Covid-19 testing. The acquisitions lacked transparency and misunderstood the limitations of rapid testing, its submission to the inquiry said.
Whiting said he was at a loss to understand why the government had purchased antibody testing from companies with no experience in medical diagnostics.
“A lot of these products were not going to be deliverable, effective or viable, and we were constantly suggesting you stick to the mainstream suppliers who know what they’re doing, who have support structures in Australia, who can implement and roll out, rather than panic buy something from people who have no experience in this space,” he said.
“Why would you do that? Why would you buy a product from people who never had products in this space, who had no set-up in Australia, when you’ve got a perfectly viable association and industry in Australia already providing a lot of these kinds of products?
“Frankly I don’t understand why you would do that, why you would do it in such secrecy.”
Last month, the Guardian revealed the Australian government had agreed to buy 500,000 Covid-19 antibody test kits from Promedical, a company run by a convicted rapist and a former business partner of the services minister, Stuart Robert.
Promedical had no experience in medical diagnostics and was later fined by the TGA for falsely claiming to have regulatory approvals.
