7 arrested for running fake Remdesivir injection factory in Uttarakhand, already sold 2,000 injections

The Delhi Police has arrested seven people for running a fake Remdesivir injection manufacturing unit in Kotdwar in Uttarakhand.

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New Delhi
April 30, 2021
UPDATED: April 30, 2021 12:46 IST
Police also recovered 196 fake "ready to sell fake Remdesivir injections" and 3,000 empty vials from manufacturing unit in Kotdwar in Uttarakhand. (Image: India Today)

Seven people were arrested for running a fake Remdesivir injection manufacturing unit in Kotdwar in Uttarakhand. The accused were arrested after the Delhi Police conducted raids in Kotdwar, Roorkee and Haridwar.

Police also recovered 196 fake "ready to sell fake Remdesivir injections" and 3,000 empty vials from the spot.

Moreover, police found the accused have already sold 2,000 fake Remdesivir injections.

The accused used to sell fake Remdesivir injection for Rs 25,000, police said.

Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava took to Twitter to inform about the incident.

"In all 196 ready to sell fake Remdesivir injections were seized. From the premises, packing machines, 3000 empty vials for packing Ramdesivir were recovered. Accused further disclosed that he already sold 2,000 fake Remdesivir injections to desperate people," SN Shrivastava said in a tweet on Friday.

A team of police has been formed to gather information about those who have been given these fake injections.

The mastermind, Aaditya Gautam, used to run the factory where medicines were manufacture. But, in the wake of rising demand for Remdesivir drug, he started operating a unit to make fake Remdesivir injections.

Aaditya Gautam is a resident of Roorkee and has been arrested by the Delhi Police. According to police, several other people are involved in the syndicate.

WHAT IS REMDESIVIR?

Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug that prevents further replication of a virus. Remdesivir was initially developed in 2009 by Gilead Sciences in California to treat Hepatitis C. The drug never worked and remained in closed research till 2014. In 2014, it was repurposed to treat Ebola. Remdesivir has since been used to treat two diseases caused by members of the coronavirus family -- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE REMDESIVIR

Several cases of black marketing of Remdesivir have emerged in the last few months as the demand for the drug spiked after the rise in Covid-19 cases across India.

IPS officer Monika Bhardwaj, DCP of the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, has posted tweets “for educational purposes” detailing how to differentiate genuine Remdesivir from a fake vial.

Here's a guide on how to distinguish fake remdesivir from real ones

Fake Remdesivir packages do not have "Rx" written on it just before the name of the injection.
A capitalisation error in the third line written on the package. The genuine package reads as "100 mg/Vial" while the fake one has "100 mg/vial" written on it.
There is alignment error in the brand name of the product. Note the gap on the package of fake and genuine Remdesivir injections. The fake vial has an increased gap.
There is another capitalisation error below the brand name in "Vial/vial" on the fake package.
One more capitalisation error is found at the bottom of the front side of the fake Remdesivir package. "For use in" written on the genuine package becomes "for use in" on the fake drug package.
On the back of the box, the "Warning" label is in red on the genuine package. The fake one has a black warning label
Just below the warning label, key information "Covifir [brand name] is manufactured under the licence from Gilead Sciences, Inc" is missing on the fake injection package
There is a capitalisation error in the text identifying the drug-maker, Hetero Labs. The fake Remdesivir package reads India as "india"
There is a spelling error in the full address on the package containing the fake Remdesivir injection. It spells Telangana as "Telagana"

Click here for IndiaToday.in’s complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Posted byAkriti Anand