Mumbai: 7 arrested for selling Remdesivir at exorbitant price of Rs 30,000 for each vial

The Mumbai Crime Branch on Saturday arrested 7 persons for allegedly selling Remdesivir injections at a higher rate than the actual price. The arrested persons have been accused of selling a vial of injection at Rs 30,000 against the actual price of Rs 5,400. Officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and crime branch also recovered stock of Remdesivir injection after raiding two places in the city on Saturday.

This is not the first incident that has been reported in the capital city. Earlier, two persons were arrested in Thane district near Mumbai for selling medicines used in COVID-19 treatment at high prices. The police had then seized four vials of Remdesivir injections which the accused were selling at a price of Rs 20,000 for each vial. Such incidents come as the COVID toll in the country's financial capital crossed 1-lakh mark on Saturday.

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Mumbai's COVID toll crosses 1 lakh-mark

The city witnessed 1199 fresh cases and 65 deaths due to COVID-19, taking he fatalities to 5647. Mumbai, which has seen a drastic slowing down in the number of cases, stands at 1,00,178 cases of which 70,492 have recovered while 24,039 are active. Mumbai's recovery rate has maintained at 70% during this week while the growth rate is at 1.30%. The BMC has reported that 4,27,378 samples have been tested till date with 6033 samples tested in the past 24 hours (positivity rate at 23.16%).

READ | COVID-19: Two Held For Selling Remdesivir At High Prices In Maharashtra

Remdesivir has been considered to be effective in treating mild cases of COVID-19. On June 14, the Health Ministry had approved the emergency use pf Remdesivir as per the newly updated Clinical Management Protocol for COVID-19. Listed as an investigational therapy along with Convalescent plasma and Tocilizumab, Remdesivir should be used only in a defined subgroup of patients. The dose has been prescribed as follows: 200 mg IV on day 1 followed by 100 mg IV daily for 5 days.

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