Police in Gujarat’s Valsad district had on April 15 arrested a technical director of medicine company Bruck Pharma and his associate for a...
Police in Gujarat’s Valsad district had on April 15 arrested a technical director of medicine company Bruck Pharma and his associate for allegedly selling injections of the antiviral remdesivir injection in the black market, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday.
The incident came to light following a controversy after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday intervened as Mumbai Police questioned Rajesh Dokania, director of the Daman-based pharmaceutical company. The police had apprehended Dokania on information that at least 60,000 Remdesivir vials were being sent abroad through air cargo, despite a ban on the export of the drug, PTI reported.
States such as Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat have complained about a shortage of remdesivir, which is being used to treat critical coronavirus patients, even though medical opinion about its effectiveness has been mixed.
In a briefing on the arrest last week, Superintendent of Police at Valsad’s Vapi town Rajdeep Singh Jhala said that one of those held identified himself as Manish Singh, a technical director of Bruck Pharma, while his associate Varun Kundra owned a furniture shop.
Jhala said that the police had received a tip-off about the two selling remedesivir injections at a higher price than market rate.
“When one of our policemen approached Kundra posing as a relative of a patient, he agreed to sell...
