New Delhi: Within weeks of getting approval for emergency use, one of the most effective life-saving drugs against the Covid-19 virus has become a tool for minting money for the greedy chemists and drug dealers due to laxity on the part of authorities. We were asked by the hospital to arrange two vials of Remdesivir, which was not available with the two authorized sellers in Delhi, but it was available in the black market, and its price was going up as if it was gold, a COVID patient’s relative told ETV Bharat on the condition of anonymity.
The horrifying experience of a Delhi based businessman, who has been looking after the treatment of his COVID infected cousin in a top private hospital in Delhi (a designated COVID care Centre in the national capital), should be an eye-opener for the authorities as the country fights a difficult battle against the novel coronavirus.
The highly infectious virus has claimed over 20,600 lives and infected over 7,42,000 people in the country while global death toll has surpassed 5,47,000 people and infections have reached near 12 million.
The Union government last month approved a few drugs in the country for emergency use in treatment of Covid-19 infection. While Cipla, Hetero and Mylan have got approvals for manufacture and sale of Remdesivir under licence from Gilead Sciences, Glenmark got the approval to produce and sell Favipiravir under the brand name Fabiflu.
Approval of Remdesivir in the country came as a big relief for patients and relatives as it is considered one of the most effective treatment against Sars-Cov-2 virus.
But its approval has also come as a lucrative opportunity for greedy drug dealers.
“Early this month, we got a call from one of the doctors of the hospital where our patient is admitted that patient needs to be administered remdesivir. In fact, they informed us that it was already administered to him, but then they had run short of the supplies, and they wanted us to arrange two vials of the drug from outside as they were not being able to manage it,” a cousin of the COVID patient told ETV Bharat.
He said, after receiving the call from hospital, started to look for drugs and approached two authorized dealers in Delhi. He was told that he would need to furnish the patient’s Aadhaar card, doctor’s prescription and COVID positive report of the patient to get Remdesivir at a price of Rs 4,500 per vial.
“Unfortunately, both these places said that they did not have the medicine, and they were running short of supplies,” said the relative while narrating his horrifying quest to procure the drug for his elder cousin who was on ventilator in the hospital.
“Since it is a matter of life and death, so we started exploring, and we requested some other chemists to find some way. After we circulated the word, some people came to us saying it was available in the black market,” he said.
“We were told that it was available for Rs 15,000 a vial, the day we decided to acquire it they asked for Rs 35,000 per vial, and a day before its price had gone up to Rs 27,000 per vial, the price of Remdesivir in black market was rising as if it was gold,” the patient’s relative told ETV Bharat.
The relative, who refused to share the name of hospital as the patient is still under treatment, told ETV that he decided to share his experience on social networking site LocalCircles as there was an option to flag the issue without disclosing his identity.
He, however, said that he decided to raise the issue as black marketing of this life saving drug was rampant in NCR region which is a bigger concern.
“We checked at three places, South Delhi, East Delhi and Gurgaon, it was available in black market at all three places but not with the two authorized sellers in Delhi then I realized it’s rampant black marketing,” the relative said.
“Chemists told us that they needed two hours advance notice and the drug will be delivered,” he said while highlighting the rampant black marketing of Remdesivir in Delhi-NCR.
