The Food and Drugs Control Administration, Gujarat on Friday busted a black-marketing racket of Covid-19 drugs Remdesivir and Tocilizumab injections used for the treatment of patients infected with the coronavirus.
Two persons, one from Ahmedabad and one from Surat, have been arrested. The team also seized stock of these injections worth Rs 4.65 lakh and Rs 10.80 lakh from Surat and Ahmedabad respectively.
On July 21, the Surat wing of the FDCA received a tip off that these injections were on the black market, and laid a trap after giving a bogus order to one Sandip Mathukia, a resident of Ahmedabad. He is attached with Abott Company as a medical representative.
Mathukia used to get the injections from a Yash Rajeshbhai Mathukia of Surat. Yash was arrested when he was trying to sell two vials of Remdisivir for Rs 18,000 each. A resident of Katargam area, Yash did not provide bills for the druga when asked to.
According to Dr H.G. Koshia, commissioner FDCA, Gujarat, on checking the labels it has been found that probably these have originated from Bangladesh.
It is believed by those in the know of developments that this may be part of an international racket. The FDCA team and the police are looking into the drugs, the number of injections and to whom it has been sold at a higher price.
Sandip was running the racket along with Darshan S. Soni and Parth Babulal Goyani, according to officials. During the interrogation, they revealed that they used to get Remdesivir injections from one Shabbir Ahmed of Bangladesh. Ahmed used to ensure delivery till Agartala and then Sandip would go to Agartala to get the consignment.
This is not for the first time arrests have been made in connection with these lifesaving injections. A few days ago, arrests were made for manufacturing of spurious drugs.
Meanwhile, Gujarat recorded 1,068 patients in the 24 hours ending at 5 pm on Friday. With this, the total number of Covid-19 positive patients in the state has gone up to 53,631. The death toll in Gujarat is now at 2,283 after 26 people were reported dead.
A government spokesperson said that in Gujarat, so far, 38,830 patients have been discharged.
The Gujarat government on Friday released comparative data to show that Gujarat ranked 10th in the country when single-day numbers of Covid-19 are taken into consideration.
