Fake Remdesivir racket busted in Haryana, 11 arrested

CHANDIGARH: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) department of Haryana on Tuesday claimed to have busted a racket involved in the sale of fake Remdesivir infections in the state.
During themonth-long raids conducted by the department,11 accused were arrested by the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of the police while more arrests are likely to be made in the coming days.
A spokesperson of of the FDA said that it was found that the accused were allegedly selling Meroprnem, as Remdesivir by printing fake stickers of Hetero Labs Limited, a pharmaceutical company which is producing the crucial drug.
Continuous raids were conducted at the whereabouts of the accused.
During the raids, 277 drug vials having fake stickers of COVIFOR Lyophilized Powder (Remdesivir for injection 100mg/vial) were recovered, said the spokesperson adding that as many 3,326 empty boxes of Meroprnem were also found.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Dilpreet Singh, director of Elfin Drugs Private Limited was involved in sale of fake Remdesivir," the spokesperson said.
He said that the has sealed the premises of the firm from where the said drug stock was recovered.
On April 20, the police had stopped Paras and Kanishq at a check point in Ambala and had recovered 24 injections of COVIFOR Lyophilized Powder (Remdesivir for Injection 100mg/vial ), manufactured by Hetero Labs Limited from them. They failed to provide the valid documents for carrying the drug.
Never manufactured Lyophilized dosage recovered by police: Hetero Healthcare
The next day, a team FDA visited Hetero Healthcare's premises in Ambala Cantt for probe.
During the investigation, the officials of the firm told the FDA team that the drug seized by the police does not belong to the firm. They further said that they had got manufactured a similar batch from Aspiro Pharma Limited in liquid dosage form and never manufactured Lyophilized dosage in the said batch.
Later on May 16, a team of the FDA raided the premises of Saroha Pharmaceutical in Panchkula for the investigation and recovery of injection COVIFOR.
During the raid, the team had recovered unlabeled dry injections in powdered form in 20ml vials.