Gujarat government says it doesn't have power to direct private firm to fix Tocilizumab injection price

The Gujarat government on Thursday said that it doesn't have the power to fix a price or issue any direction to the manufacturer of injectable drug Tocilizumab being used by doctors in the state to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients. Tocilizumab, an expensive drug, is in high demand in the state and recently a racket was busted manufacturing and selling spurious ones to needy people.

The government said this in an affidavit filed in the high court in response to a petition seeking a proper mechanism to ensure its supply. The affidavit states that the drug is being imported from Switzerland and for which license is required which is issued by Drugs Controller General of India, DCGI, CDSCO, New Delhi that has the powers regarding imports and fixation of price.

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"The state government has no power in fixing maximum retail price or any reasonable price thereof or issuing any directions to the concerned manufacturers in that regard or in any other matter pertaining to imports thereof," the affidavit stated. It said that only one firm Roche, based in Switzerland, manufactures the drug and is being imported and distributed by Cipla Ltd, Mumbai.

The injection is available in 80 mg, 200 mg and 400 mg strength with maximum retail price of Rs8,112, Rs20,274 and Rs40,545 respectively, whereas, the state has procured them at Rs6,174, Rs15,435 and Rs30,870 respectively. The affidavit mentions that since March 30 to present, the government placed orders for 4,597 injections from Cipla, out of which, 2320 have been delivered to Gujarat Medical Services Corporation Ltd, a government of Gujarat body. At present, the government has a stock of 77 injections stored at GMSCL. In addition to this, Cipla has also assured that it will supply 100 to 150 such injections within a week.

The government has said that Tocilizumab is "not anti-viral injection but it is recommended to be administered under certain specific circumstances and that too under specific expert recommendation and strict medical supervision and more particularly, during the course of occurrence of Cytokine Storm, which represents elevated inflammatory markers and the same can't be administered in each and every case of covid19 patient."

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It said that it is not a medicine specially prescribed for covid19, inasmuch, as it is an immunosuppressive drug meant for treating Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, a severe form of arthritis in children. The government claimed that stock of anti-viral medicine like "Remdesivir '' injection and "Favipiravir" tablets are available for treating Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, five persons were booked for allegedly manufacturing and distributing Tocilizumab injections in Surat and Ahmedabad. Two of the accused have been arrested while three including the mastermind are absconding. The accused were running the racket through a fake pharma company. They started this in view of high demand for the injection after Surat started turning into a new hotspot for the coronavirus.