Hyderabad: Task force arrests 8 for black marketing of drugs

Hyderabad: The south zone task force on Tuesday arrested eight persons for black marketing the generic versions of Remdesivir, Actemra and Fabiflu tablets which are used as anti-viral for Covid-19 patients and seized 51 Remdesivir injections of 100 mg, nine Actemra of 400 mg and four injections of Actemra 80 mg, 180 strips of Fabiflu, 100 Covid-19 rapid testing kits and net cash of Rs 55,000, all worth Rs 35, 55,000. The accused were identified as Venkata Subramanyam alias Phani, Santosh Kumar, Md Shakir, K Kishore, Rahul Agarwal, Gagan Khurana, Saif Ali and Firdous Mohammed.

The commissioner of police, Hyderabad, Anjani Kumar said that since the outbreak of coronavirus the demand for these drugs has been high and going by the rules of Hetero (based in Sangareddy) is the sole company which has been given permission to manufacture Remdesivir.

He said, "The prime accused, Phani, is a self-styled Managing Director of 'Sri Medicure Products' and works from his residence in Malkajgiri. He claimed to be purchasing the drug from Hetero Company and started selling it. He sold it to his next chain in command, Santosh Kumar and made a profit of Rs 3,500 for each drug."

"The second accused, Santosh Kumar sold it to Kishore Kumar and Md Shakir earned a profit of Rs 6,000 on each drug. Further, the accused persons Kishore and Shakir sold it to Rahul who made a profit of Rs 8,000 on each drug. Apart from it, Rahul also managed to rope in Firdous and Saif to sell the drug directly to customers where they made a profit of Rs 15,000 on each drug. Lastly, the drug was sold to needy customers in the range of Rs 30,000 to 40, 000," explained the commissioner.

He further added, "The box of drug Remdesivir clearly mentions that the medicine is supposed to be meant for institutional and hospital use only. It comes with a consent form which has to be duly signed by the patient or the attendants of the patient and the concerned doctor at the time of administration of the drug. However, the accused persons were misusing the drug and have not abided by the laws, so they were arrested and will be remanded to judicial custody."