Pandemic transformed small firm into multi-million company selling lateral flow tests

Charles Palmer and Kim Thonger were in debt before the pandemic hit and they helped negotiate £978 million worth of deals with the British government (Pictures: AFP/Getty Images)

The pandemic has made a small company extremely wealthy after it made more than £20million selling lateral flow tests.

Just before the pandemic in 2019, Disruptive Nanotechnology Ltd. had £85 in the bank and owed £3,592 in debts.

Now the firm, which only has its owners for employees, has £18,251,054 in the bank and has made £20.5million in profit, according to records filed with UK’s registrar of companies last week.

Disruptive Nanotechnology is owned and run by Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor from London, and Kim Thonger, who was a shoe retailer for Dune, DKNY and Dr Marten’s from Northamptonshire.

When coronavirus hit the UK, the men, who had no background in medicine or pharmaceuticals before, decided to get involved with testing.

They helped the US firm Innova Medical Group negotiate deals with the British government worth £978million.

Now, that number is £3.7billion and growing, according to records filed with Companies House last week.

Charles Palmer was a chartered surveyor from London before the pandemic hit the UK in March 2020 (Picture: charlespalmerpropertycharteredsurveyors .co.uk)

Kim Thonger was a shoe retailer for Dune, DKNY and Dr Marten’s from Northamptonshire (Picture: Disruptive Nanotechnology Limited)

Innova was only a small start-up itself before the pandemic. But the company turned the crisis into an opportunity when it bought out millions of lateral flow tests made by Chinese company Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology.

The firm then used Mr Palmer and Mr Thonger to ‘make introductions’ because ‘you need to find someone who has connections’, an Innova spokesperson told The Daily Mail in May 2020.

Innova’s deals with the British government reportedly account for the largest set of deals signed with any private company during the pandemic.

And as Innova’s profit grows, so too will Disruptive Nanotechnology’s.

Innova and its parent company have since spent its money on two Gulfstream private jets, with one costing £48 million.

The firm’s chief executive Daniel Elliott also splashed out on a mansion with six bedrooms, a sauna, a wine cellar and a cinema in October 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Innova now has contracts to sell its lateral flow tests to the UK worth £3.7 billion (Picture: Getty Images))

Mr Palmer told The Mail he was living in the same house and driving the same car he used before the pandemic.

Mr Thonger apparently refused to comment because the issue was ‘commercially sensitive’.

Innova has previously faced controversy over allegations its lateral flow tests are not effective in detecting the virus.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said last June that it has ‘significant concerns that the performance of the test has not been adequately established, presenting a risk to health’.

Shortly afterward, experts wrote in the British Medical Journal that ‘the public is being misled about [the tests’] accuracy, as well as the risks and implications of false-negative results, and they call on the government urgently to change course’.

But the UK Health Security Agency has insisted ‘all tests go through rigorous assessments’ and has continued using the company to provide the country with at-home testing kits.

Innova has repeated this sentiment, reminding the media that its products have been certified by the British government.

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