Dutch company sold unreliable coronavirus tests: report

A Dutch biotech company sold coronavirus tests which had a high chance of giving an incorrect result, Trouw reports based on an investigation by journalism platform OCGRP and research platform Investico. The danger of incorrect results is that it can give a person a false sense of security and make them wrongly think that they are now immune to Covid-19.

According to the company Inzek, the tests look for antibodies to see if the tested person has had the coronavirus and gives results in ten minutes. But two scientific studies indicated that these results are very unreliable, the newspaper writes. The Dutch Outbreak Management Team and the European Commission also both state that such rapid tests have not yet been developed, Trouw wrote.

According to the newspaper, the tests are also sold under the impression that they were made in the Netherlands, when they were in fact made by the Dutch company in China.

The company sold some 1.5 million tests that are in circulation in more than 20 countries, including in the Netherlands. They could enter the market uncontrolled, because the Healthcare Inspectorate only looks at tests sold directly to consumers, while this company says it sells to healthcare professionals, Trouw said.

Inzek denied to the newspaper that its tests are unreliable and that they are falsely marketed as made in the Netherlands. According to Trouw, the phrase "Dutch-made" was removed from the company's website after questions from the newspaper.