India: Two Accused Over "Fake" HIV Tests

The owners of Andhra Pradesh-based Monozyme India were denied bail Monday in a West Bengal court for allegedly selling hundreds of thousands of pregnancy and other diagnostic tests under the pretense they were HIV or hepatitis test kits. The kits were supplied between April, when Monozyme's government contract began, and August, when widespread complaints against the company were first reported.

The company's owners, Govind Sarda and his brother Ghanshyam, were charged with malpractice and forgery. They contended, instead, that the kits were accidentally distributed after a consignment believed to be HIV test kits was delivered from China.

Police believe Monozyme supplied nearly 200,000 kits in West Bengal hospitals and blood banks. Nearly 90,000 expired blood diagnostic and pregnancy tests have been seized from blood banks and hospitals in West Bengal in the last 20 days, and more kits may have been supplied to at least eight other Indian states, according to Gyanwant Singh, a Kolkata police detective. One official said at least 117 people received misdiagnoses as a consequence, but there could be more.

Many West Bengal blood banks were afraid of taking new blood donations, said Subir Bhaumik, BBC's correspondent in Kolkata. Youth clubs had stopped organizing blood donations, he added. Now blood banks in the state are reporting shortages.

Monozyme India has 256 distributors across India, including 12 in Kolkata.

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