Several vials of Remdesivir purchased for the treatment of a Covid-positive patient who later died were sought to be sold on the black market in the city.
A friend of the patient’s son ganged up with three others to sell the antiviral drug for eight to ten times its actual price, police say. The price of each 100-mg vial of Remdesivir has been fixed at between Rs 899 and Rs 3,490, down from the earlier bandwidth of Rs 2,800 to Rs 5,400.
Nagesh, 43, a vegetable vendor from Mallathahalli, has a friend who had bought the emergency-use drug for the treatment of his father. The patient, however, died. Nagesh asked the friend for the remaining vials of the drug in an attempt to sell it on the black market.
He roped in three people — Shiva Kumar, 32, a bank manager from RR Nagar, Darshan, 29, a medical representative, Girish, 30, a medical lab technician — for help in selling the drug and promised to share the money with them.
But somebody tipped the police, and the four men were arrested near a private hospital close to the Mahalakshmi Layout bus stand around 6.45 pm on Friday. Three vials of Remdesivir, two mobile phones and Rs 6,000 in cash were seized from the arrested suspects.
In another case, Srirampura police arrested Nayaz Ahmed, 30, a delivery boy at a pharmaceutical company, for trying to sell the drug near Bandireddy Circle, Chamarajpet, around 4 pm on Friday. Police said Ahmed had taken two vials of the drug from the employer, saying it was needed for the treatment of his brother but tried to black-market it instead.
Bommanahalli police also arrested three people — Anil, Manjunath and Balajaji — and seized three vials of Remdesivir from them. The trio was trying to sell the drug for Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000, police said.