HSE briefing last night revealed the limit on number of #cornoravirusus tests that can be carried out is due to companies keeping the manufacturing process for a key reagent secret - this 41 sec clip from 22 minutes into briefing says this, see next tweet for transcript /1

Transcript of what Dr. Cillian de Gascun of National Virus Research Laboratory said about the limit on number of #COVID19 tests that can be processed "The 2nd issue is extraction material to actually extract the viral RNA & that is proprietary unfortunately" /2

Internationally 3 major companies seem to produce this reagent. Qiagen's scaling plans to ramp up production are below but this is a tiny fraction of the increase in demand. To save millions of lives its essential that the manufacturing process is revealed and open sourced /3

Of these three Roche have a manufacturing plant in Clarecastle, Co. Clare. We heard that the drastic reduction in testing from 5k to 1500 was because a plant in Ireland had exported a large quantity of reagant to make a greater profit elsewhere. /4

HSE scaling back due to shortages was presented as simply better targeting but this isn't the case - test centers have been closed & workers trained to work there have been demobilised. S. Korea had a lower hit rate (2.4%) than our testing - low is good as most cases found /5

Whether or not this was the Roche plant is secondary, there is a global shortage of the reagant that will not be solved by bidding wars between countries. It is instead essential that the production recipe is open sourced - the lives of millions must come before profits /6

Information sourced from Department of Health briefing on coronavirus - 31st March
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1dRKZQPMWvNxB
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/qiagen-aims-to-more-than-quadruple-its-covid-19-reagent-production-6-weeks https://www.roche.ie/en/about/roche-in-ireland/roche-ireland-limited--clarecastle--.html

Our general overview of the fight against Coronovirus can be read in this thread https://twitter.com/WSMIreland/status/1244567891288211460

Tonight's HSE press conference again confirmed this reagent shortage as being because companies are not allowing its external manufacture either through secrecy or IP. If you are reading this thread outside Ireland this is also the issue for you https://www.facebook.com/VirginMediaNews/videos/256557325365398/