Call for a refund for failed antibody tests
THE Government will seek a refund for millions of coronavirus tests ordered from China after scientists found they were too unreliable for use.
Ministers will attempt to recoup taxpayers’ money spent on fingerprick tests after an Oxford University trial found they all returned inaccurate results.
The failure is a significant setback because it had been hoped the antibody tests would show who had already built up immunity, and therefore a swifter route out of lockdown.
On March 25, Dr Sharon Peacock, of Public Health England, hailed the fingerprick tests as a “game-changer” and suggested they would be available to the public within days.
But Prof Sir John Bell, from Oxford University, who advises the Government on life sciences, yesterday said disappointing trials meant a mass antibody test was now at least a month away.
He added that no country in the world had yet rolled out a reliable antibody testing programme.
“Sadly, the tests we have looked at to date have not performed well,” he wrote, in a blogspot entitled Trouble in Testing Land.
“We see many false negatives (tests where no antibody is detected despite the fact we know it is there) and we also see false positives.
“None of the tests we have validated would meet the criteria for a good test as agreed with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). This is not a good result for test suppliers or for us.”
Last month, the Government ordered 3.5 million fingerprick tests – mainly from Chinese manufacturers – and later placed provisional orders for 17.5 million tests from nine firms including ones based in the UK. None of the tests were found by Oxford to be reliable enough for mass use.
Sources said the Government would now work with the manufacturers to improve reliability. But Prof Bell suggested that it may be time to go back to the drawing board and work to develop a test from scratch.
“There is a point in evaluating these first-generation tests where we need to stop and consider our options,” he said.
He said the search was on for a test that was sensitive and specific enough that it could be taken at home.
“That should be achievable, and the Government will be working with suppliers both new and old to try and deliver this result so we can scale up antibody testing for the British public,” he said. “This will take at least a month.”
Yesterday, Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, said he was “not surprised” that the tests had been found to be unreliable, describing it as the “first pass”.
He added that the antibody tests would be more useful towards the end of the epidemic when antibodies had been given time to develop, and would be more easily detected.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “If the tests don’t work, then the orders that we placed will be cancelled and wherever possible, we will recover the costs.”