NOIDA: Doctors say it’s not a wonder drug and have cautioned against its indiscriminate usage, but in the black market,
Remdesivir continues to thrive. The latest Remdesivir hoarder to be busted is a 31-year-old
Delhi resident, who made a killing selling each injection for anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 40,000 since March, finding most of his customers through WhatsApp groups, police said.
Remdesivir is a drug only meant for hospital use and cannot be sold anywhere else. But Rachit Ghai found plenty of customers who would cough up many times the MRP – Remdesivir is sold under different brand names by companies and the price varies widely, beginning at just under Rs 1,000.
Ghai had sourced the injections from an accomplice and had been selling them across Noida. The injections were procured from agents in Chandigarh and Delhi’s Dwarka, police said. Sources said the injections were pilfered from a company unit or a hospital.
Ghai was in possession of 100 vials of the injection when he was arrested. At least five of those vials are Bangladesh-made. Ghai, who lives in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar, had been active on certain WhatsApp groups that people dealing with medical emergencies joined, police sources said.
“We got information that some persons had been selling Remdesivir to patients’ families for a high price. The accused was active on Facebook and other social media platforms from where the information was received and action taken. He sourced most of the vials from Chandigarh and some five-six vials from Delhi,” DCP (crime) Abhishek Singh told TOI. Singh added that Ghai initially sold the injections for a low margin but became greedy and jacked up his quote.
Ghai worked at a cardboard factory in Delhi but shifted to Noida in March after it shut down. A police officer said Ghai has claimed to have sold around 150 injections since March. “But we think it is much more than that. He is associated with a bigger agent who has supplied the injections to him,” Singh said.
Cops are looking for a Haryana-based man, who they believe is the main supplier. A police officer said since the injection was sourced by the accused in bulk, the batch numbers of the injections were being scanned to verify where they were manufactured. Ghai has been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and various sections of the Drug and Cosmetics act, 1940. He has also been booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act. A Santro and Rs 1.54 lakh in cash was seized from the accused.
Police are also investigating black-marketing of oxygen, for which there is huge demand. Several oxygen cylinder providers in Harola told TOI they had run out of supplies and didn’t know when they would be available.
A youth, meanwhile, allegedly circulated advertisements stating oxygen cylinders were available for Rs 30,000 out of which Rs 5,000 would be refunded on the cylinder being returned. Monu, whose number was circulated on Twitter, had called patients to the Sector 62 metro station to sell the cylinders. Besides, some sellers are forcing people to buy an entire oxygen cylinder rather than give a refill, which costs Rs 500-600. A seller from Kalindi Kunj this correpsondent spoke to offered a cylinder for Rs 35,000 and promised to deliver it in Noida.