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Chester County Suing Malvern-Based Advaite To Recover $12 Million Allegedly Lost In COVID-19 Antibody Test Contract

MALVERN, Pa. (CBS) -- Chester County is attempting to recover some $12 million from a Malvern company it contracted to supply one million COVID-19 antibody test kits. County leaders are suing the company and making strong accusations in the lawsuit.

As this pandemic eclipsed the globe, Chester County officials say they were doing their part by getting tests for COVID-19. They contracted with a local company for one million tests, but according to a lawsuit, things went horribly wrong.

The contract, made with a firm in Malvern identified in court documents as Advaite, shows Chester County on April 21 paid $2 million for rapid COVID-19 antibody tests.

That was an initial payment in a deal reached with the company for an eventual delivery of one million tests at $20 a piece. The grand total — $20 million.

But the lawsuit filed Friday in the Chester County Court of Common Pleas accuses Advaite and its principals of breach of contract, alleging they failed to provide tests according to a supply schedule.

This graph from the county claims by late May, the company was behind on delivering 960,000 of the one million tests.

Records show Chester County had already paid $13 million.

The suit also alleges defects and component issues with the serology tests.

Attorneys for the company tell CBS3 the lawsuit is full of misstatements. They say any issues with the tests boiled down to operator error and a lack of training on the county's part.

Asked about the claim 960,000 tests were never delivered, attorney Ajay Raju said by phone: "We have test kits languishing in the warehouse. Every fact they have in the lawsuit is materially false, the tests are expiring when they could be saving lives..."

West Goshen resident Margie Swart months ago first noticed the county's plan to buy tests.

"$20 million just sounded like an enormous amount of money," Swart said.

Swart says she believed the county moved too quickly in entering into the $20 million contract

"I'm afraid they wanted to be first and maybe took some shortcuts and that upsets me in that I feel that they didn't do the proper research," she said.

Chester County officials say now that it is in litigation, they have declined to comment on the allegations raised in the lawsuit. They are seeking upwards of $12 million from Advaite.

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