Amid Acute Shortage, Mumbai Chemist Sells Rs 5,000 Remdesivir For Rs 20,000; Caught Red-Handed
A medical shop owner in Mumbai was arrested after he was found selling anti-viral drug Remdesivir at almost four times the market price. His associate has also been arrested.
A medical shop owner in Mumbai was arrested after he was found selling anti-viral drug Remdesivir at almost four times the market price. His associate has also been arrested.
According to a report by India Today, Sonu Darshi (25) and his aide Rodriques Raul (31) were arrested after a police decoy contacted them posing as a customer. "They quoted Rs 20,000 for a drug costing Rs 5,400 per vial. The accused were caught red-handed while selling the medicine and police recovered four vials of the medicine," said the report.
The two have been booked for cheating under the Indian Penal Code Section 420 , besides the Essential Commodities Act and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
¡°We are probing the role of at least two staffers of the medical store at the hospital," police told Mumbai Mirror.
Reuters
Meanwhile, long queues were seen in various suburbs of Mumbai as availability of life-saving drugs like Remdesivir, Tocilizumab remained a major concern in the city.
Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are witnessing an acute shortage of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, drugs which have shown encouraging results in COVID-19 patients.
The shortage, which has also led to black-marketing of the drugs prompted Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and state cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad to urge the Centre to make the life-saving drugs available in the market, said a Times Now report.
Gilead Sciences Inc said on Friday an analysis showed its antiviral Remdesivir helped reduce the risk of death in severely ill COVID-19 patients, but cautioned that rigorous clinical trials were needed to confirm the benefit.
Remdesivir has been at the forefront of the global battle against COVID-19 after the intravenously administered medicine helped shorten hospital recovery times, according to data in April from a separate US government trial. That study showed a trend toward better survival for remdesivir but the difference was not statistically significant.
