Nagpur: District collector Ravindra Thakare on Friday asked pharmacies in Covid hospital to display their stock of Remdesivir injections on a board outside their outlet. The board has to be updated with the stock changes too. Earlier, collector had issued an order stating Remdesivir can be sold or purchased only from Covid hospitals and their attached pharmacies.
On Friday, the shortage of Remdesivir had aggravated despite a consignment of around 6,000 vials reaching Nagpur depot as against demands of around 20,000-22,000 vials in Vidarbha. There was widespread discontentment among the Covid hospital managements regarding shortage of Remdesivir as many ran out of shock.
Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari too has alerted the civic administration and collector Ravindra Thakare regarding the black-marketing of Remdesivir asking for capping the drug’s price.
Some of the hospitals had to shift their patients back to oral medications (Favipiravir) as Remdesivir injections did not arrive despite alerts sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and district administration control room and helpline at the collector office. Several citizens also kept on trying the collector office’s helpline (0712-2562668) for Remdesivir.
According to hospital sources, inflated price was sought for some stock which had arrived. “I had placed an order for 500 vials but got 288 only,” said a doctor.
Dr Anup Marar of Orange City Hospital and Research Institute said the stock dried up at his hospital after which the patients had to be shift back to oral medication. “The doctors were petrified to visit patients in the ward as they were blaming the hospital for the shortage of Remdesivir,” he said.
Niranjan Joshi of Alexis Multispecialty Hospital said he had around 72 patients admitted. “We have stocks to last till Saturday 5pm. If no new stocks arrives, then we will also face a crisis,” he said.
A man said his patient could not get Remdesivir even after trying for the entire day. “We ran from pillar to post but Remdesivir could not be arranged,” he said.
In the meantime, collector and FDA authorities clarified consignments were reaching with stock in the Nagpur depot periodically, but nothing substantial had been demanded for April from the seven pharmaceuticals, as some media had reported. FDA sources also clarified that there was no letter sent to seven pharmaceuticals asking for 20,000 injections per day. “We have some Remdesivir stocks coming but not so much is present in the region as was reported,” said collector Ravidra Thakare.