Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited’s revenue jumped from £ 38 million to £ 166 million a year by the end of March 2021, with profits rising eightfold from £ 1.6 million to £ 13 million, according to accounts submitted this week to Companies House. The company, which also paid a dividend of £ 420,000 for the year, won two PPE contracts during the period, worth a total of 1 131 million. Last year, Labor accused Patel of “blatantly violating” the ministerial code, which he denied, after letters surfaced that he had intervened with Michael Gove on behalf of the company, which was represented by a former adviser. Documents showed that in May 2020, Patel sought to secure a PPE deal for the 20 20 million company. Her efforts failed after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the masks “were not appropriate for the NHS,” according to a revelation in a lawsuit filed by the Good Law Project. In the documents for both contracts, Samir Jassal was referred to as Patel’s “communication with suppliers” in the PDL. Jassal is a former Patel adviser, has been a Conservative candidate in two general elections and has met Boris Johnson and David Cameron. At the time, a Patel spokeswoman said: “The Home Secretary has rightly followed through on the statements made to her regarding the vital PPP supply. “In a time of national crisis, failure to do so would be a breach of duty.” PDL, owned by Bemal Patel (no affiliation with Home Secretary), has since won a third, 85m contract to provide a side-flow test, raising its total revenue from Covid-19 work to 216 millions £. The Guardian approached PDL and Jassal for comment. The revelation from the government – in response to a letter before the action from the Good Law Project campaign team – revealed a letter Patel wrote to Gove in May last year. The Daily Mail, which was the first to report on the documents, said the possible deal was worth 20 20m. In the letter, Patel expressed frustration with the fact that the government no longer demanded supplies of KN95 masks from the PDL, saying that “they have committed to stock and secured supply, exposing them to significant financial risk and pressure.” “The last stage in which the government decided not to use them caused these problems,” the interior minister wrote on May 3 last year. He went on to say that he would be “very grateful” if Hancock could reconsider the matter urgently and urged him to “work with the company to distribute and supply these masks”. Hancock wrote back 10 days later to say that “KN95 face masks are Chinese standards” and that British officials had concluded that “they are not suitable for use in the NHS”.
