Recently, the “King of Nucleic Acid” Zhang Hézǐ has once again caught public attention for demanding nucleic acid testing fees. Since the end of 2024, his company has taken several health bureaus in Fujian, Putian, and Inner Mongolia’s Hulunbuir to court to reclaim testing fees.
According to reports from mainland media, from the end of 2024 until May 2025, Zhang Hézǐ, who holds controlling shares in Shenzhen Nucleic Huali Medical Laboratory, has filed lawsuits against five health bureaus over nucleic acid testing fees.
These include four health bureaus under Putian City in Fujian Province – Licheng District Health Bureau, Chengxiang District Health Bureau, Xiuyu District Health Bureau, and the Meizhou Bay North Bank Economic Development Zone Health Bureau, as well as the Hailaer District Health Bureau in Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia. The grounds for the cases are “service contract disputes.”
A health bureau in Putian admitted that a dispute did arise due to nucleic acid testing fees, which has been settled, with the amount not disclosed.
Phoenix News reported that demanding high unrecovered receivables from nucleic acid testing companies is the primary challenge faced by third-party testing facilities such as Kingmed Diagnostics and ADICON. However, only Zhang Hézǐ seems to be directly suing the health bureaus.
An employee at Shenzhen Nucleic Huali Medical Laboratory told Phoenix News’ “Company Research Institute,” “The specific situation is not clear.” Another employee who worked at the laboratory during the epidemic mentioned, “During the epidemic, the laboratory conducted tests for many health bureaus, probably did not receive payment; the exact situation is not known.”
Shenzhen Nucleic Huali Medical Laboratory was established in July 2015, with Shenzhen Nucleic Genes Technology Co., Ltd. (“Nucleic Genes”) holding 100% ownership. Nucleic Genes was founded in 2012, with Zhang Hézǐ as the legal representative.
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Nucleic Genes quickly became a “major force” in nucleic acid testing.
According to a report by Observer Net, during the peak period of nucleic acid testing business from 2020 to 2022, Nucleic Genes’ revenue could reach hundreds of millions of yuan, with substantial profits. In 2021 alone, the monthly testing volume in some of Nucleic Genes’ laboratories exceeded tens of millions of people, and with the testing prices at that time, monthly revenue could reach tens of millions of yuan.
Public information shows that by 2022, Nucleic Genes had established 39 medical testing companies nationwide, conducting over 700 million nucleic acid tests, with business coverage in 45 cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Lanzhou, and Putian.
At the end of 2022, Zhang Hézǐ was embroiled in a scandal due to falsifying nucleic acid test results. At that time, several places such as Xingtai, Changsha, Lanzhou, and Shenzhen issued fines to Nucleic Huali’s related laboratories, involving offenses like suspected false reporting of test results.
In addition, in February 2025, Zhang Hézǐ was subject to restrictions on high consumption by the court over a labor dispute of 200,000 yuan. Subsequently, Zhang Hézǐ swiftly released a video showing himself traveling in a high-speed rail business seat, claiming that he was not affected.
According to a report by The Paper on May 20th, the day after Shenzhen Nanshan District Court imposed the “high consumption restriction” on Zhang Hézǐ on February 10th, it was lifted based on a full deduction of 200,000 yuan into the court account. However, the enforcement applicant has stated that they have not received the execution funds to date.