Black Market Booms As Covid Patients Become Desperate For Timely Aid

Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in a tweet said “On the one hand the government has failed in not stocking up enough quantities of Remdesivir and on the other has shown inefficiency by unable to curb its sale in the black market or the fake ones in the market. Both the Centre and State have slipped on COVID-19 management.”

Representational Image (Reuters)

New Delhi: The second wave of Covid-19 has hit India like a Tsunami, cases are surging by the hour and everyday the country seems to break a new record. At such a critical point, the medical system is struggling to keep up with the demands and face shortage of medical supplies like Oxygen cylinders and drugs remdesivir and tocilizumab. 

Meanwhile, the supply have been shifted to the black market, which is were desperate paitents or family members turn to in order to procure the much need supplies. 

The police force is working round the clock to track down the people behind black market, the hospitals continue to face shortages. 

While India has banned the export of the viral drug, doctors across the country are prescibing the drug. Meanwhile, manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the demand. India reported 2,17,353 new COVID19 cases and 1,185 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry. 

According to a BBC report, Hetero Pharma, one of seven firms manufacturing remdesivir in India, said the company was trying to ramp up production. The report stated that the shortage in supply is leading to black marketing of the drug in Delhi and several other cities. At least three agents contacted by the BBC in Delhi agreed to supply each 100mg vial of remdesivir for 24,000 rupees which is five times the official price.

Chhattisgarh: For Remdesivir injection, a long queue of family members of COVID patients was seen outside a medical store in Raipur on Thursday.

"I have been here since Wednesday morning. My patient needs 6 injections but they won’t give more than one," a man said. pic.twitter.com/BeGHf1U8rY

— ANI (@ANI) April 16, 2021

Indore's Special Task Force (STF) has arrested three people in connection with black marketing of remdesivir. The police have recovered twelve 'export printed' remdesivir injections from their possession reported ANI. According to the STF, one of the accused identified as Rajesh Patidar is a medical representative (MR) in a pharma company while another accused Anurag Sisodiya is an owner of a medical store in the city. After receiving tip-off that someone is selling for Rs 20,000 per injection the STF officials arrested them," STF SP, Manish Khatri told media on Thursday. 

"We did not learn lessons from the first wave. We were aware that the second wave was coming but we didn't plan to avoid unfortunate incidences like shortages of drugs, beds and oxygen," said epidemiologist Dr Lalit Kant was quoted in a BBC report. "We didn't even learn from other countries which faced similar circumstances," he said.