IT Correspondent
Mumbai, July 20:
Seven persons were arrested by Mumbai police on Sunday in connection with black marketing of ”Remdesivir” injections, recommended for COVID-19 cure, after Mumbai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) busted a racket by conducting raids.
Acting on the tip-off, FDA tracked one of the accused and placed a fake order. On Saturday night the accused called the FDA officials (who were posing as customers) near Bal Rajeshwar Temple at Mulund in North East Mumbai. FDA reached the appointed venue. Then two persons –Vikas Dubey and Rahul Gada, came with one vial of “Remdisvir” and quoted the price of Rs.30,000 per vial. The MRP of “Remdisvir” of “Hetro company” is Rs 5400 and that of “Cipla is Rs 4,000. The two accused were promptly taken into custody.
Six more vials were seized from the houses of the accused and based on the information given by them, five more persons were arrested and a total of 13 vials of “Remdisvir” were seized. The arrested persons were identified as: Bhavesh Shah, Ashish Kanojia, Ritesh Thombre, Gurvir Singh, Sudhir Pujari (working for Delpha Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Ghatkopar, North East Mumbai). Most of them were working either as Medical Representatives or as Counter Salesman in chemist shops. They used to procure “Remdisvir” from distributors by giving false medical reports of their relatives.
The operation was carried out under direction of FDA Joint Commissioner (Vigilance) Sunil Bhardwaj and Police Inspector Satish Taware, by Drug Inspector Sharadchandra Nandekar and others. The accused have been booked under provision of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Essential Commodities Act 1955.
Maharashtra government has made it compulsory that a person wanting to buy “Remdisvir” will have to produce an aadhar card. Now the purchasers will be required to produce doctor’s prescription, his/her mobile number and a report stating the patient for whom the “Remdisvir” is being purchased has tested positive for the virus, FDA Minister Rajendra Shingne said.
“Remdisvir” has proved to be an important drug for the treatment of Coronavirus. The shortage of the drug across the country, including Mumbai was reported earlier. In fact, in Mumbai, the drug is directly made available to the hospitals. The shortage and importance of the drug has resulted into several instances of black marketing of the drug.
