Gonoshasthaya Kendra trustee Zafrullah Chowdhury on Wednesday said they were not thinking any alternative trial of the Rapid Dot Blot kits as he firmly believed that the kit would pass the trial at BSMMU.
“I am hundred per cent sure that the kit will pass the trial at BSMMU but for bureaucratic complexity delayed the mass production of the kits that are needed now for country’s people as the number of infected people is increasing gradually,” he said while speaking at a seminar on the kit held at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhaka.
Zafrullah said, “Necessity knows no law. If the government agencies come forward in this crisis moment, more people would be benefited from the invention of Dr Bijon Kumar Sil. But due to bureaucratic complexity it was taking much time.”
He suspected that other scientist might get the credit of the kit’s inventor due to the recognition of the government. Zafrullah Chowdhury also wanted Tk 50 crore from government as loan for a huge production of the kits
Bijon Sil said that he had developed that kit to test both antibody and antigen tests sampling saliva and even swab.
No GK officials confirmed that when they would get the permission but said that as soon they get permission they would go for massive production that could enable the government to test daily 50,000 suspects.
On May 13, GK handed over its 200 kits COVID-19 testing to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for its performance trial and submitted Tk 4.35 lakh to the BSMMU authorities as cost for the trial.
Gonoshasthaya-RNA Biotech Limited, a concern of Gonoshasthaya Kendra in Bangladesh, developed the kits named Rapid Dot Blot to test COVID-19.
BSMMU virology department chairman Saif Ullah Munshi declined to comment with media on the issue.
Among others BSMMU former vice chancellors Prof Nazrul Islam and Prof Kamrul Hasan Khan, Dhaka university vice chancellor AK Azad Chowdhury and Professor Muzaherul Huq spoke.
