A rapid test importer landed an estimated $2 billion in federal contracts in 2021 and 2022, despite giving regulators incomplete data about its product’s accuracy, Global News has found.

A year-long investigation into federal procurement revealed that BTNX, a small rapid test supplier based outside Toronto, deleted dozens of specimens, or samples, from a study it submitted to Health Canada. That evaluation showed how well the company’s test detected COVID-19.

The deletions made BTNX’s test appear more reliable and sensitive than it really was, according to researchers Global News consulted.

The device could detect the virus in users who were the most contagious, but results from leading regulators’ evaluation programs indicate BTNX’s test was much less dependable in all other cases.

This apparent flaw meant the test kit was more likely to produce false-negative results which, many experts said, put Canadian lives at risk.

“I think it’s outrageous that the public wasn’t as aware of the discrepancies in the testings that had real-life implications,” said Jillian Kohler, director of the University of Toronto’s World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Governance, Transparency and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical Sector.

Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada bought 404 million tests from BTNX, which became ubiquitous during the pandemic.

Now, as Canadians gather for the holidays amid reports of an uptick of COVID-19 infections and the emergence of new variants, many may still have the original, lime-green kits with the code COV-19C25 in their homes. Some pharmacies, schools and daycares still distribute them.