Two held for selling coronavirus antiviral drug at higher price in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Two people were arrested by the East zone task force police on Sunday for selling coronavirus antiviral drug Remdesivir (Covifor) at a higher price in Hyderabad.

According to the police, the arrested works in a pharmacy in Chaderghat and obtained Remdesivir (Covifor) injection from some person and sold it at higher prices. Upon specific information, the task force police raided the pharmacy and caught them red-handed. The two were later handed over to Chanderghat law and order police for further action.

On Saturday, the city police arrested seven people including three nurses for illegally selling coronavirus antiviral drugs at higher rates. Besides making the arrests, the police also seized nine remdesivir and one cipremi injection from them. The police said that the accused were selling the drugs at Rs 25,000-35,000 per vial. The actual price of the injection is Rs 5,400.

The arrested were identified as Mohd Obaid, Mohd Afaq Ali, Mohd Majid Ali, Abdul Aziz, B Raju, N Sunil and M Ravi. Abdul Aziz, who works in pharmacy at Olive Hospital is said to have planned to sell the drugs illegally after most of the people asked for the drug in treating coronavirus patients.