Row over Remdesivir


Chennai: Mumbai police questioned a pharma company director following information that thousands of vials of the Remdesivir drug critical in coronavirus treatment were to be flown out of the country.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who is being targeted by the ruling parties in Maharashtra for objecting to Mumbai police’s grilling of a pharma company’s top executive over alleged stocking of Remdesivir vials, has said he was not afraid of any inquiry against him as he has not done anything wrong.

Speaking to reporters atthe Nagpur airport on the issue of of questioning of Bruck Pharma company’s director over the Remdesivir stock, said, “I am not afraid of any inquiry because I have worked in the opposition for 20 years and have 36 cases against me for the sake of people.”

Police on Saturday night questioned Rajesh Dokania, director of Bruck Pharma, a Daman-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company that manufactures Remdesivir vials.

Meanwhile, India’s Remdesivir shortage may be shortlived as a stock of 7.4 million doses is likely to be available by the end of this month or the first week of May, claimed reports. The seven manufacturers who have a licence from US drug company Gilead Sciences, Inc. to make this investigational injectable drug have been given approval by the drug regulator to activate 18 new sites where they can make Remdesivir.

In another development, six persons, including the director of a leading pharmaceutical company based in Baddi, the pharma hub of Himachal Pradesh, were arrested for illegally storing and striking a deal for the sale of antiviral Remdesivir in Chandigarh on Sunday.