Hyderabad: In a major crackdown against those indulging in the illegal sale and black marketing of antiviral medicine in city, sleuths of the task force on Tuesday arrested 8 persons and recovered medicines worth 35 lakhs.
Addressing a press conference police Commissioner Hyderabad Anjani Kumar informed that generic versions of Remdesivir, Actemra and Fabiflu Tablets which are being used for Antiviral medicine for Covid-19 patients were being sold in black market by a gang of eight persons.
He told that the kingpin of the gang is K. Venkata Subramanyam aka Phani a native of Secunderabad who is professionally a Managing Director for the company styled as “Sri Medicure Products (OPC) Pvt Ltd”.
Venkata Subramanyam was purchasing the drugs from Hetero Company situated at Sangareddy and the same is being sold to one of his associate Santosh Kumar for the profit of Rs. 3500/-, subsequently Santosh Kumar is selling the products to K. Kishore and Mohammed Shaker with a profit of Rs. 6,000/-, the duo were reselling the same medicines to Rahul for a profit of Rs. 8000/-, at the end, said Rahul is selling the same drug to the customers through Firdouz and Saif for a profit of 15,000/- to 18.000/-. Finally, the medicine is being sold for a price between 30,000 to 40,000 depending on the demand.
The procedure of sale/use of above-mentioned drugs:
It has been clearly mentioned on the box that the medicine is supposed to be meant for institutional/Hospital sale only. Remdesivir drug comes with a consent form that has to be filled and signed by the patient/attendants and concerned doctor at the time of administration of drug. A copy of consent form has to be handed over to patient or attendants. It is the duty of the institution to ensure availability of consent form all the time especially during inspection by CDSCO/DCGI.