Covid-19 testing equipment brought to Australia by Andrew Forrest is being used to a significant degree by private pathology companies, data shows.
Forrest’s philanthropic arm, the Minderoo Foundation, brokered an agreement for the supply of millions of Covid-19 tests from the Beijing Genomics Institute earlier this year.
The equipment and testing supplies were secured at a time of huge demand and were installed in labs across Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Healius, one of two major players in the Australian private pathology sector, said it had used the BGI equipment to process 500,000 Covid-19 samples by the end of last month.
BGI equipment was also provided to Sonic. Sonic did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment.
Minderoo’s Covid-19 response director, Steve Burnell, said the technology and testing supplies secured by Minderoo were now playing a significant role in responding to Victoria’s second wave.
“The Security Through Accelerated Testing (Stat) project was a ground-breaking and critically important partnership between the Australian government, Minderoo Foundation and private pathology providers, to rapidly secure Covid-19 test kits and pathology equipment across the country,” Burnell said.
“When [health minister Greg] Hunt asked us in April to urgently and significantly increase Australia’s pathology capabilities – a task that ordinarily would have taken years – we knew it would be a very challenging task.”
It is understood that about 4.8m tests have been brought to Australia of a potential 10m available through the deal.
The introduction of BGI equipment brought new testing technology to Australia mid-pandemic, prompting some criticism, but Burnell said the diversification of technology had been positive.
“As minister Hunt has pointed out, the diversification of Covid-19 testing equipment and supplies has been instrumental in Australia’s success in maintaining high testing rates and managing the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“Minderoo Foundation chairman Dr Andrew Forrest AO is on the record saying that assisting the commonwealth in our nation’s time of need was some of the most important work Minderoo Foundation has ever been asked to undertake.”
When announcing the deal, Hunt said the tests would “allow our state and territory public health units to be able to test right through 2020, to provide us with the capacity to contain and suppress and defeat the virus” and the Guardian has previously reported that many state and territory public pathology providers were not using the BGI equipment.
Hunt and Minderoo say that the intention was always to install the equipment in private pathology laboratories to improve the nation’s testing capacity, rather than for it to be used by public health pathology providers.
Burnell said the deal had effectively quadrupled Australia’s daily Covid-19 testing capacity in about five weeks.
“Currently these tests are proving critical in allowing Victoria to tackle the serious second wave facing that state,” he said.
BGI, a major Chinese biotech, has come under fire in recent months for alleged links to a genomic surveillance program targeting the persecuted Uighur minority. The company has denied any such involvement, though the US government has blacklisted some of its subsidiaries over the allegations.
The health department has also said some of the tests were sent to the national medical stockpile, a reserve of equipment kept in secret locations across the country.
