Mumbai Police seize 2,200 vials of Remdesivir from exporters

The Mumbai police seized 2,200 vials of Remdesivir injection from the premises of two exporters located in Andheri and New Marine Lines area on Monday. Remdesivir is used to treat serious Covid-19 patients and has been in short supply in Maharashtra, leading to a political tug of war between the state and the Centre. The Central government last week banned Remdesivir’s export till the time the domestic situation improves.

Deputy commissioner of police (operation) Chaitanya Siriprolu said that teams from Mumbai Police and Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) jointly raided two locations in the city on Monday after learning that certain exporters were hiding stocks of the crucial drug despite a direction by the government to declare their stocks for domestic use.

2000 vials of the injection were recovered at one exporter’s location in Marol, Andheri East, which belongs to a pharmaceutical company. These 2000 vials were taken into possession by FDA for use/distribution in hospitals, he said.

Another 200 vials of Remdesivir were recovered at another exporter’s location in the New Marine Lines area. These too were taken into possession by the FDA.

“These 2,200 Remdesivir vials were produced for export but were kept stocked by the exporters as there is a ban on the export of Remdesivir. FDA officials are following due procedure to make these vials available to hospitals,” said Siriprolu, who is also the spokesperson for the Mumbai Police.

Officials aware of the developments said the investigators are checking if the seized vials of Remdesivir were linked to Daman-based Bruck Pharma, an exporter of the drug at the centre of a recent political controversy, involving Mumbai police and senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Fadnavis had accused Maharashtra government of cheap politics and alleged that Mumbai police was harassing a Bruck Pharma executive over suspicion that it was hiding thousands of vials of the drug after its export was banned. Fadnavis claimed that the harassment took place at a time when the company was given permission to supply the stocked medicine to Maharashtra.

The ruling coalition parties alleged in response that Fadnavis was more concerned about the pharma company than the residents of the state.