Long lines were seen in different areas of Mumbai and Gujarat as accessibility of life-saving medications like Remdesivir, Tocilizumab became a significant worry in the city. These cities, similar to Delhi, Bengaluru and different urban areas in the nation has been confronting an immense deficiency of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, drugs which have demonstrated potential results in COVID-19 patients.
Prior this week, even the primary wholesalers in Mumbai were in shortage of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and state cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad implored center in this regard to make the medications accessible in the market.
The non-availability of two imp life-saving drugs #Tocilizumab and #remdesivir is creating panic amongst patients and relatives and leading to deaths @PMOIndia plz c (please see) that it is available in the market for those who need Black marketing should b (be) stopped (sic),” Awhad tweeted on July 7.
Of late Gujarat’s Foods and Drugs Control Authority (FDCA) has busted black market racket of the drug – Tocilizumab. The proprietor of Sarthak Pharmacy, Uma Kejriwal, negotiated a final deal with the decoy trader at Rs 57,000 for a 400 ml vial of injection. But the actual price of the injection formulation is Rs 40,000 in the pharmacies. The FDCA soon caught the woman proprietor Uma Kejriwal, who tried to set the deal for the vial illicitly.