Company’s illegal sale of Covid-19 antigen self-test kits busted, the illegal profits up to more than 2 million dollars

Prosecutor CHU WAN-CHI and CHAO CHI-CHENG, members of the epidemic prevention and treatment team of Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, led the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, Kaohsiung City Division to investigate the case of illegal sale of pseudo Covid-19 self-test kits.

On July 14, a search warrant was executed at a company factory in Taoyuan City. During the investigation, officers seized 137 packs of lysis buffer and 80,000 units of Covid-19 self-test kits. The company's deputy general manager, 51-year-old male, was summoned for violating of the Medical Devices Act. The initial estimate of illegal gains amounted to more than 2 million dollars.

It was found that the Trican Biotechnology Co., Ltd. had been outsourcing manufacturing the Covid-19 antigen tests to that company since last year. Later, the company, in violation of the contract and with no approval by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, started to manufacture unauthorized lysis buffer and intercept part of the antigen self-test products, counterfeited as legally approved products to profit from this pandemic by illegally selling the pseudo products.

With the increasing demand on pandemic-related medical products during the pandemic, Covid-19 is increasingly being used as a hook to commit fraud. Unauthorized fraudulent test kits for COVID-19 will put people’s health and lives in danger. People will risk unknowingly spreading COVID-19 or not getting treated appropriately if you use an unauthorized test.

The authorities will spare no efforts to crack down on people and companies trying to profit from this pandemic by selling illegally marketed products. 

If you find any suspicious illegal sale of unauthorized pandemic-related products, please be brave to report it to the authorities.

Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office will continue to investigate and eliminate illegal activities to safeguard the health and safety of the public.